Starting Over
by UnicornStarFighter
Summary: ((Kind of) ON HIATUS) AU/AH. She was a writer working at a coffee shop out of desire, not necessity. He was a former soccer star who had played in Europe until a car accident ended his professional career. Both had their secrets, and both were looking for something—they just didn't know what. (Delena-centric, also contains Beremy/Steroline) (Rating subject to change)
1. Chapter 1

The stream of curses coming from the mouth of the young woman rushing down the hallway didn't suit her appearance in the slightest. With long, straight brown hair, brown eyes, and a figure that belonged in a magazine, she looked like she should be in a modeling campaign, not running through her house with a vocabulary of curses that could rival a sailor's. She stuffed her keys and wallet into her purse as she made her way to the door, only to swear once more and pull her keys back out of the bag. As she was opening the door, her hand flew to her neck. She swore again as she turned around to grab a scarf from the hall closet, and when she finally left the house, the door slammed shut behind her loudly enough to be heard from the street.

Wind bit at her cheeks as she ran down the steps of the porch and over to the driveway, the chilly November temperatures already promising that there was a cold and long winter ahead. Ignoring the weather, she got into her car, backed out into the street, and threw the vehicle into drive. It didn't take her long to traverse the small-town streets, and after about ten minutes, she pulled into a space in front of a coffee shop. The sign above its door read "The Beanery," and through the windows, she could see that its tables were packed. Cursing silently to herself, she got out of her car, locked it, and made her way across the sidewalk and into the shop as quickly as possible.

The hum of conversation greeted her—although she would say that "dull roar" was probably more accurate a term—as the door shut behind her. Her view from the street hadn't lied. If she didn't know any better, she would have said that half the town was there. It was unsurprising, as most people frequented The Beanery if the weather was cold, but as she caught sight of a young woman with dark hair smiling and pouring coffee for an elderly couple, she internally cursed the residents of Mystic Falls for their predictability.

She hurried into the back room before anyone could say anything to her, shrugging off her coat in the process. Once she was safely ensconced in the room that functioned as break room, storage, and changing area, she hung her coat and purse up on an empty hook and removed an apron from another one. The burgundy cotton was the same color as the paint on the front counter and the outside of the building, and her name was stitched in a curling white script on the front pocket—Elena.

She only paused long enough to pull her hair out from underneath the neck strap of the apron before she let herself out of the back room to the area behind the counter. The dark-haired young woman had retreated there as well in the time it had taken Elena to take off her coat and fetch her apron, and she raised her eyebrows as Elena began to tie the waist straps of her apron.

"Someone's running a little late," the dark-haired woman said, though her green eyes crinkled to signify her lack of anger.

"I'm so sorry, Bonnie," Elena said. "I was up late trying to come up with an idea and I couldn't and I overslept and I didn't mean to make you cover for me—"

Bonnie laughed. "It's fine, Elena. You're hardly ever late, and besides, I'm not about to fire my best friend." Her expression sobered a moment later. "Still having problems with the writer's block, then?"

Elena groaned. "You have no idea. It hasn't been this bad since I was fifteen and we had that project for English. Remember?"

"You were so concerned about that thing and it took you until the night before it was due to actually come up with a good idea and write it," Bonnie said, chuckling. "And you still got a better grade than the rest of us." She glanced out at the tables. "It looks like Mrs. Montgomery needs another refill. You man the counter, yeah?"

"Of course," Elena said.

Bonnie picked up a pot of coffee and made her way out from behind the counter as Elena began to organize the dishes and mugs that sat within easy reach of her position. The conversations that filled the room faded into the background as she hummed to herself, and she allowed her mind to wander until the sound of the bell above the door broke her out of her reverie.

She looked up just as the customer approached the counter, only to do a double-take. Strangers weren't common in Mystic Falls, and it was immediately apparent when someone wasn't from the area. Everyone knew everyone else there, especially if they'd grown up in the town as Elena had, so the dark-haired, blue-eyed man walking through the shop was obviously out of place. The image was only worsened by his choice of clothing. Nobody in Mystic Falls wore all black unless they were going to a funeral, but it seemed he hadn't realized that—well, he hadn't realized it, or he just didn't care. Nevertheless, Elena smiled at him when he reached the counter—Bonnie's policy was service with a smile.

"Hi, and welcome to The Beanery," Elena said. "What can I get for you today?"

"A black coffee, dark roast," the stranger said.

His voice sent a shiver down her spine, but she kept the smile on her face as she reached for a mug. "Coming right up."

She filled the mug and passed it across the counter to him in a smooth, practiced motion. He took it from her with a nod of thanks and made his way to the back corner of the shop without another word. There was a table there, visible only from behind the counter. As such, hardly anyone ever sat at it, as the majority of the residents of Mystic Falls preferred to stay where they could make conversation with everyone else.

"Who's mister dark and handsome?"

Elena jumped at the sound of Bonnie's voice, as she hadn't noticed that the other woman had returned to the area behind the counter. "Dunno," Elena said, shrugging. She glanced at the man quickly. "I can't help but feel like I've seen him before though."

"No, I know what you mean," Bonnie said. "You'd think with the number of strangers we get around here, we'd at least know where we'd seen him."

Elena made a face. "I'm not going to worry about it too much. I'll drive myself mad if I think about it for too long."

"You and me both," Bonnie said. She glanced at her watch. "The good news is, it should start clearing out here in about an hour, and then it'll be quiet until everyone's done with work and comes in for their post-labor latte." She eyed Elena. "You're sure you don't mind working a double shift today? I hate asking you to do it, but I've got to—"

"You need to go clear out your dad's house, Bonnie," Elena said. "You've been putting it off too long, and with Caroline there to help, you won't have any trouble sorting through everything. I really don't mind staying here. Like you said, it'll be quiet until everyone comes in later, and then they'll all be out of here by five and I'll be able to sit and try to work until closing. It's not a big deal, as long as you don't mind me stealing a sandwich for dinner."

"You're the greatest best friend ever, you know that?" Bonnie asked.

Elena grinned. "I do, but you can feel free to keep reminding me so that I don't forget."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "I'll be sure to do that. We can't have you forgetting, can we?"

"No, we definitely can't," Elena said. She laughed when Bonnie made a face at her, and reached out to lightly push the other woman's shoulder. "I'm going to get myself a coffee."

"Of course you are, since as we both know, the only reason why you work here is the unlimited supply of free coffee for employees," Bonnie said.

"Yeah," Elena said. "Well, that and the company, anyway."

Bonnie raised her eyebrows, and Elena grinned at her. The two devolved into giggles a moment later, and they laughed for a minute before Bonnie calmed herself down enough to pick up a fresh pot of coffee so that she could go make rounds and top everyone's mugs off. Elena busied herself wiping down the counters and putting the dirty mugs and plates into one of the dishwashers that was hidden behind the counter. They wouldn't run them until after closing, as the sound didn't add to the ambiance of the shop, but Elena tried her best to load the dishes when they came in instead of piling them in one of the dish tubs to be loaded later.

True to Bonnie's earlier statement, people began to clear out as the hour wore on. By ten-thirty, there were only a few patrons left in the shop, and they all greeted Elena and engaged her in conversation as she made her way around the room to wipe down the abandoned tables. She greeted them with a smile and responded to their questions as she worked. It was all harmless small talk that she could engage in without really having to pay attention to what was being said. Nobody ever really had to go into the details of their personal lives because secrets traveled fast in Mystic Falls as a general rule. Everyone had a few, the whole town knew that, but if the secrets weren't known by everyone within a few weeks, they were ignored and left alone.

At a quarter past eleven, everyone had left the shop, save for the stranger back in the corner. Bonnie made it her mission to top off his coffee until he asked her to stop, and Elena wasn't about to deny her best friend her fun. Bonnie had opened The Beanery just after they'd graduated from college with the help of the inheritance left to her by her grandmother, and had run it on her own until Elena had moved back to Mystic Falls a year and a half previous. Her whole reasoning for opening the place had been that they had never really had anywhere good to go for coffee or to hang out during high school. The Grill was great and all, but it got a bit boring after spending every weekend and Friday afternoon there for three years, and Bonnie had vowed to keep The Beanery interesting and known for its great service so that patrons would keep coming back. She hadn't failed in her mission, and it only helped that she switched up the menu every few months so that there was always something new. The classics stayed, but there were always seasonal specials that, when paired with the baking efforts of both women, made for a fantastic lunch, quick date, or post-work or school snack.

Just after one, the bell above the door rang to signal the arrival of another customer. Elena lifted her gaze from the notebook she was writing in to see who had entered, and when she saw who it was, she allowed her pen to fall from her hand. The blonde woman smiled and held up a paper bag as Elena made her way out from behind the counter.

"I come bearing lunch from The Grill, ladies," the woman said.

"Caroline, you are a lifesaver," Bonnie said as she came out from behind the counter as well. "I was trying to decide if I wanted to be the nice best friend and go get it myself, or if I wanted to be the mean boss and send Elena to do it so that I didn't have to." She grinned when Elena wrinkled her nose. "It's cold out there, and I didn't know if I wanted to suffer through it."

"Well, now you don't have to, because I brought everyone's favorite," Caroline said. She set the bag on the counter and pulled out a few take-out containers. "Elena, that's for you, and Bonnie, that's yours. This one is mine."

They each took a seat on one of the barstools at the counter and opened their lunches. For a few moments, the only noise in the room was that of them chewing, the clink of the stranger's mug as he placed it back on its saucer, and the quiet hum of music in the background. Eventually, Elena spoke.

"I thought you were supposed to be working today, Care," she said.

Caroline waved her hand dismissively. "The beauty of being self-employed is that I can take a break whenever I want. I'm ahead on all of the events that I'm planning, and Stefan was freaking out, so I decided to go see him and then bring you ladies some lunch so that you wouldn't have to go out and get it yourselves."

Elena's brow furrowed. "Stefan's freaking out? Why?"

Caroline shrugged. "Something to do with his family," she said. "I didn't get most of the details, but I'll let him tell me when he's ready." When Bonnie and Elena both stared at her, she narrowed her eyes. "What?"

"Care, you press about everything," Bonnie said. "Patience isn't exactly your strong suit when it comes to waiting for people to give you the sordid details about their life events."

"I'm his girlfriend, and I need to be supportive," Caroline said primly. A moment later, she made a face. "I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't dying to know what's happening, though. I never see him this rattled."

"I'm sure he'll tell you when he's ready," Bonnie said.

"You're probably right," Caroline said. After a momentary pause, she shook her head. "Enough about that, though. How's the writing going, Elena? Have you got anything done yet, or are you still stuck?"

Elena groaned. "Don't even get me started on that. I get a call from Tyler every Sunday evening in the hopes that I'll have something new to give him, and every single time I have to tell him that I haven't gotten anywhere." She pushed her salad around with her fork. "I don't know what I'm going to do. If I don't come up with something soon..."

"Maybe don't push it so much?" Caroline asked. "You always used to tell me that I needed to let things happen as they would when I was getting ahead of myself in high school."

"Letting things happen as they happen is all well and good when you don't have deadlines to meet," Elena said. "As it is, I've already had to get three extensions, and I really don't know how many more they're going to give me. I've got until just before New Year's to come up with something, or I'm going to be having a rather unpleasant conversation with the execs about why I failed to meet the terms of my contract."

"You'll come up with something," Bonnie said. "You always do."

Elena smiled slightly. "If only I had as much faith in myself as you have in me." She shook her head. "I'm just going to have to hope that I come up with something that isn't completely terrible soon, or I'll be getting a lot of phone calls that I really don't want to have to deal with."

"If you need to take some time off, you can," Bonnie said. "I managed before you got here, and I can manage if you need to focus on coming up with something."

"Please no," Elena said. "I'll drive myself crazy if all I'm doing is pacing around my house trying to come up with a new idea. I need to come here to stop myself from over-thinking everything. It never works when I over-think things."

"You and the rest of us," Caroline said. She grinned a moment later. "On a completely different note, I had an idea the other day, and I need you two to agree with it."

"Tell us and then we'll see if we can actually go along with whatever your insane plan is," Bonnie said.

"I was thinking that none of us have any plans for the summer, and seeing as we're all our own bosses or in charge of each other, we can take time off whenever we want, so..." Caroline paused. "I think that we should take a couple weeks off in July and go to Europe."

"Where did this come from?" Elena asked. "Three weeks ago you were all about the Caribbean."

"I was flipping through travel magazines and I remembered how much I loved Paris and I want to go back," Caroline said. "So I figured, why don't we make a group trip out of it? It would be a million times more fun that way."

Elena and Bonnie exchanged a look, and then Elena shrugged. "I'm in if Bonnie will let me off work. I don't have anything better to do."

"I haven't left this town since I got back from college," Bonnie said. "You can't get me out of here fast enough. Consider it done, Care."

Caroline clapped her hands together, a broad grin forming on her face. "Excellent. I'll start sorting out our itinerary and we can deal with the flight information in a few months." She glanced at her watch. "Oh, I'm going to be late to pick up samples for the Chamberlin party if I don't leave now. See you in a couple of hours, Bonnie?"

Bonnie nodded. "Yeah. Thanks for lunch."

"It's very much appreciated," Elena said.

Caroline smiled. "My pleasure. See you ladies later."

She put her coat on and made her way out of the shop, her purse hanging just perfectly from the crook of her arm. Elena watched Caroline go and shook her head as soon as the door closed.

"I love her, but sometimes I wonder how I ever ended up becoming friends with her," Elena said. "She's just so..."

"Caroline?" Bonnie asked, laughing. "Yeah, she is. As for how we ended up becoming friends with her, we've known her since we were pretty much in diapers and didn't really have a choice in the matter. I'm not complaining, though, since she plans all of our vacations for us and we always have a great time."

"That's an excellent point," Elena said. She glanced at the clock and then looked back at Bonnie. "You know, if you want to leave, you can. It's not like it's busy in here, and there's no point in both of us sitting around doing nothing."

"If you're sure," Bonnie said. "It's going to get busy in a few hours, you know that."

"Yeah, I do," Elena said. "I've done it on my own before, Bon. I'll be fine."

Bonnie looked at her for a moment and then pulled her into a hug. "Still the greatest best friend in the entire world."

"I'm glad you think so," Elena said. She gave Bonnie a gentle push. "Go. I'll clean up lunch."

Bonnie gave her a grateful smile before disappearing into the back room. Elena gathered up the takeout boxes that had contained their lunch and threw them into the trashcan behind the counter. She had just begun to wipe down the counter where they had sat when Bonnie came out of the back room, sent her another smile, and left the shop.

Everything was quiet as Elena made her way around the shop to straighten the chairs and tables before the post-work rush arrived. The stranger still sat at the table in the back corner. He'd cut off Bonnie's attempts to refill his coffee nearly an hour before, but hadn't left despite the fact that his mug was definitely empty. Instead, he sat there with a laptop open in front of him, an indecipherable expression on his face.

Elena steeled herself and plastered a smile on her face as she made her way back to his table. He barely looked up when she stopped beside it, and she forced the smile to remain on her face as his gaze returned to his computer screen.

"Would you like another coffee or a muffin or something else?" she asked.

He was quiet for a few moments, and when he looked up, the sight of his blue eyes nearly made her smile falter. She met his gaze despite its intensity, careful to keep her smile in place.

"A muffin would be great," he said eventually. "Chocolate chip, if you have it. And a water."

She nodded. "I'll be right out with that."

He looked back at his laptop screen as she walked away from his table. She felt her entire body relax once his gaze was no longer on her. It didn't take her very long to get him the muffin and a glass of water, and he didn't look up when she placed them on the edge of his table. Instead, he murmured a barely-audible thank-you, and she nodded in response before she returned to her place behind the counter.

She sat there with an open notebook on the counter in front of her, but her thoughts were on anything but the contents of the notebook's pages. Instead, her mind wandered as she attempted to figure out where she'd seen the stranger's face before. She didn't know how she could have forgotten eyes like his, but apparently she did. Her thoughts continued to drift until her phone rang, the song it played muffled by the back pocket of her jeans. She pulled her phone out and slid her finger across the screen to answer the call without looking at the name that flashed there.

"Hello?" she asked.

"What, no warm greeting for your favorite little brother?"

She straightened, a smile making its way onto her face. "Jeremy! I didn't know you were planning to call me today."

"I'm supposed to give you warning before I call now?" he asked. "Wow, Elena, thanks. I'm glad to know I mean so little to you."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, stop it. I'm just not used to you calling me unexpectedly. I'm still waiting for you to walk through my front door unannounced like you have ever since I moved back here." She leaned forward to rest her weight on the counter. "How's New York treating you? Are you learning anything interesting?"

"It's good," Jeremy said. "It'll give me plenty to work with when I leave, but I have to say, I'm looking forward to getting home." He was quiet for a moment. "Is Bonnie there?"

"Oh, now I get it," Elena said. "You're only calling me so that I can put you on the phone with your girlfriend. I see how it is."

She could practically see Jeremy rolling his eyes when he responded. "I was just asking, but I'll take that as a no, so forget I asked. How's the writing going?"

Elena covered her eyes with her hand. "Is everyone going to ask me that?" She dropped her hand. "Nothing's changed, unfortunately. I've been trying, but I've got nothing so far."

"Maybe you should come up here and visit me," Jeremy said. "It might give you some ideas."

Elena shook her head, only to remember that he couldn't see her. "No, I can't do that. If I go to New York, Tyler will get wind of it somehow, and then he'll be dragging me into meetings all the time to try to explain why I don't have anything ready yet. Trust me when I say that it would only make things worse."

She heard Jeremy sigh. "It'll be okay," he said. "You're trying, at least. I'm sure you'll come up with something soon. Don't stress over it too much, okay? You only ever make it more difficult for yourself when you do that."

"Thanks for the pep talk, Jer," Elena said. The bell above the door rang, and she glanced up to see a young couple walk into the shop. "I appreciate the call, Jer, but I've got to go. Someone just came into The Beanery and since I'm the only one here right now..."

Jeremy laughed. "I've got it. Talk to you soon, Elena."

"Definitely," she said. "Bye."

"Bye."

She ended the call and slipped her phone into her pocket as the couple reached the counter. With a smile on her face, she said, "Hello, what can I get for you?"

After she served them, the couple remained in the shop for the better part of an hour and left just before three. After a cursory glance at the stranger in the corner, Elena made her way into the back room so that she could use the employee restroom. When she emerged, the stranger wasn't there anymore. His glass, mug, and muffin plate were stacked neatly on the end of the counter, and there was a bill shoved in the previously-empty tip jar by the cash register, as well as another bill on the counter. She put the ten-dollar bill on the counter into the register to cover everything he'd drunk and eaten, and then pulled the other bill out of the tip jar. Her eyes widened when she saw the twenty, and she stuffed it back into the jar after a moment.

Whoever the stranger was, he was a damn good tipper, and for Elena, that was enough to make her stop wondering where she'd seen him before for the rest of her shift.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Hello friends! I bet you weren't expecting to see me back with a TVD story, but here I am. I started watching it in January and I am officially hooked and I kind of hate myself for it, but I had an AU idea and this is it, so here we go (Plus there aren't anywhere near enough AH AUs of these two idiots so I felt the urge to write another one). **

**Also, I am working on my Scorpius/Rose fanfic. I'm halfway done with it. I just need to find the inspiration to finish it. I have an outline and know exactly what's going to happen, the urge to write it just isn't quite there. ****I'll be done with my first year of college on April 23rd and after that I should have plenty of time to write, so expect Heartbeat And Bone sometime during May or June, probably. **

**I hope you guys like this. Please R&amp;R so that I know how I'm doing, and I'll be back with the next chapter soon, probably (I'm on spring break right now, so I've got more than enough writing time at the moment and I'm going to try to stockpile some chapters for when I go back to classes so that I can still update regularly).**

**For excerpts of later chapters before they're posted, you can find me on Tumblr (the URL is the same as my name on here, unicornstarfighter), and you can also find me on Twitter for sporadic statements about stories and life (My handle for my account is ACStarfighter). **

**Peace and love x**

**~AC**


	2. Chapter 2

On the Sunday following the stranger's appearance at The Beanery, Elena sat at the island in her kitchen, her laptop open in front of her and a mug of coffee beside it. A blank document was visible on the computer screen, the cursor flashing as she stared at it, her hands tucked underneath her chin. She lifted her hands and moved to place her fingers on the keys, only to draw them back just before her skin touched the plastic. She folded her hands under her chin once more, her lips pursed. The cursor continued to flash and she continued to stare at it as the minutes wore on. After a while, she groaned and lifted her hand to slam her laptop shut, only to stop when her phone rang.

"You just saved my laptop from a rather brutal death," she said when she answered it. "What's up, Stefan?"

Her friend chuckled. "Still having trouble with the writer's block, then?"

"Is everyone going to ask me that question every time I talk to them?" she asked, running her hand through her hair. "Yes, I am, and yes, I will shout it to the heavens and call all of you once it's gone, so you can stop asking me now." There was silence on the other end of the line, and after a moment, she sighed. "Sorry, I'm just a little bit stressed, in case you couldn't tell. What can I do for you?"

"My call is perfect, actually," Stefan said. "You're clearly driving yourself insane, and you should probably get away from that laptop before you destroy it, so clear your schedule and come over here for dinner. Caroline already invited Bonnie over."

Elena stared at her laptop for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. When should I be there?"

"Whenever you want," Stefan said. "Care's already here, and Bonnie's coming over in about an hour. You can help cook or you can just sit around, but I think it'll do you some good to get out of the house. Have you left at all this weekend?"

"I went out to get the newspaper," Elena said weakly. Stefan chuckled, and she groaned. "I know, I know. I'm just so wrapped up in this whole having-an-idea thing that leaving the house didn't really seem all that important."

"Well, it's no wonder that you're about ready to murder your poor laptop," Stefan said. "You're going stir crazy. Shut your laptop down and come over here. The bruschetta will be ready in twenty minutes."

Elena smiled at that. "Have I ever told you that I love the fact that you're Italian?"

"Many times, and I continue to thank you for it," Stefan said. "But seriously, Elena, if you don't hang up the phone, shut your laptop down, and get over here, I'll send Caroline for you."

Elena grimaced. "Please don't. I'm hanging up now."

"Good," Stefan said. "See you soon."

Elena hung up without another word. She closed the document on her laptop and shut the computer down, breathing a sigh of relief as the lights around its base turned off. After a moment of staring at her laptop, she picked up her mug, still half-filled with what was sure to be cold coffee, and carried it over to the sink. In a single motion, she upended the contents of the mug down the drain and rinsed it out before she put it into the dishwasher. Once that was done, she went into the hallway, slipped on her boots, and wrapped a scarf around her neck before she put her coat and gloves on. She removed her keys from a bowl that rested on a table by the door and then let herself out through the front door, taking care to lock it behind her.

The radio hummed in the background as soon as she turned her car on, and she sang along quietly as she drove the fifteen minutes to Stefan's house. He lived on the outer edge of town, as he didn't exactly have an office that he needed to be close to. Throughout high school, he and Elena had shared a similar passion for books, but he'd turned it into a lucrative career as a freelance journalist and author. For the most part, he wrote articles from the comfort of his own home, though he would occasionally travel out of town for anywhere from a few days to a week to get a first-hand look at whatever he was meant to be writing on.

When she reached the end of his driveway, she pulled up beside the dark blue crossover SUV that belonged to Caroline. She could see the pair of them through the kitchen window, talking and laughing, and she allowed herself a moment to smile before she got out of her car.

Their history was a somewhat messy one. For that matter, the history of their entire group of friends was rather messy. Almost all of them had lived in Mystic Falls since birth, and known each other nearly as long. Stefan had been born there, but his father had moved them away not long after he was born. As a result, none of the others had met him until he returned to Mystic Falls to stay with his uncle just before their junior year of high school. He and Elena had hit it off immediately and dated for the majority of high school, only to break up amicably before they went to college. During that time, Caroline had been dating Tyler, another friend of theirs, though they broke up when he informed her that he was going to NYU for college instead of going to Whitmore like everyone else. After they graduated, everyone but Elena and Tyler had returned to Mystic Falls. Without one of their best friends there, Stefan and Caroline had begun to spend a lot of time together. They started dating four months after returning home, and it had taken them another two months to inform Elena. She'd given them her blessing, and that was the end of it.

Elena was still thinking about the pair of them as she made her way up the stairs to Stefan's porch. She had a good relationship with him in high school, she really did, but they had both realized that they were going in different directions with their lives and they would be better off as friends. For all their shared passions, they'd lost whatever it was that had drawn them to one another in the first place, and Caroline was much more suited to him. Those two balanced each other, while Elena and Stefan had always been alike in personality and interests. There just wasn't enough fire there to keep their relationship going, especially with the prospect of college and new people looming over them. Clearly, he'd found someone. She hadn't yet, but it wasn't exactly a priority for her either.

She shook her head to clear her mind as she pushed open the door and stepped inside. Nobody in their group of friends bothered to knock anymore, at least not when they were expected, and she kicked off her shoes, took off her coat and scarf, and hung the latter two in the hall closet without either Stefan or Caroline emerging from the kitchen.

They were standing at the counter, Stefan busily chopping away at something, when Elena entered the room. Caroline looked up at the sound of the creaking floorboards, and she smiled when she saw Elena.

"Can I hug you, or are you going to try to strangle me?" Caroline asked.

Elena laughed and made her way across the kitchen. "I think I'm past that point of frustration now, so you should be good. If not, I take full responsibility for my actions."

"Good to know," Caroline said as she stepped forward and hugged Elena. She stepped back after a moment. "It's not going well then, I take it?"

Elena shook her head, her face falling as she leaned up against the counter. "It seems like no matter what I do, I can't come with anything new. Everything is an idea I've had before and none of them are any good. I even tried going through my old idea folder of things that I thought might actually work eventually, and nothing is jumping out at me. Some of them are good ideas, but it doesn't matter how good it is if I'm not inspired." She glanced at Stefan. "You're a writer, tell me how to fix this."

He laughed and shook his head once. "Right now I'm a chef, sorry. Besides, you know how I deal with writer's block."

"When you're stuck on one piece, you move onto another work in progress," Elena said. She sighed. "That would be great if I actually had something to work on, but seeing as that's my whole problem..."

"I know you've heard it a million times, but you're going to figure this out," Stefan said. "You've written a lot of really great stuff, and you'll find your inspiration again. Sometimes it just takes a while." A moment later, the timer on the microwave beeped. He set his knife down. "Give me a couple minutes and then you can eat as much bruschetta as you want, Elena."

"Ah, yes, drowning my feelings in food," Elena said. "It never fails me." She looked at Caroline when the blonde laughed. "Want to come over after we're done here? I could do with some talk about something other than my damned writer's block."

Caroline shrugged and joined Elena in leaning up against the counter. "I don't have any plans, so sure."

"Great," Elena said. After a moment, she sighed. "Well, I guess if I have my contract dumped, I can just work at The Beanery for the rest of my life."

Stefan turned around and pointed his knife at her. "None of that. From now on, nobody is allowed to bring up Elena's writer's block for the rest of the night, okay? Us getting together is supposed to be fun. It's not supposed to stress her out more."

Elena smiled and reached out to rest her hand on his shoulder for a moment. "Thanks."

He nodded at her and smiled. "Anytime."

A comfortable silence followed his statement, broken only by the sounds of Stefan chopping and stirring various things. After a couple of minutes, he plated the bruschetta. Elena inhaled appreciatively as he set the large plate on a counter where it would be within easy reach of everyone, and she only waited a moment before she took a piece and bit into it.

"Delicious as always," she said once she swallowed. "I mean, I'm a halfway decent cook, but you always put me to shame."

Stefan chuckled. "And you and Bonnie—mostly you—make the rest of us look bad with your baking skills, so fair's fair, I suppose."

Elena rolled her eyes and reached for another piece of bruschetta. "Whatever makes you feel better. I swear, one of these days I'm going to learn how to make all of this stuff as well as you do."

"Good luck with that," Stefan said. "You can have all the skills in the world, but you'll never have the Italian blood like I do."

She made a face at him, only for him to laugh. That caused her to wrinkle her nose more, which made Caroline start laughing. After a moment, Elena broke and began to laugh as well. She felt herself relax as their laughter filled the kitchen, the remaining tension from her earlier stress leaving her body. Eventually, their laughter died off, and Elena reached up to wipe her eyes.

"I needed that," she said. "Thanks, guys."

"We do what we can," Caroline said. "Have you heard anything from Jeremy, Elena?"

"A bit, but he hasn't said much of anything about when he's going to be home," Elena said. "I'm glad he's doing that program, because he'll have a much easier time working as an artist if he's doing graphic design and whatnot, and he's also getting some connections for photography, but it'll be good when he's back." She smiled wryly a moment later. "It'll be good for all of us. Bonnie misses him a ton, I know that, but she won't really admit it to me."

"Of course not," Caroline said. "Yeah, you're her best friend, but you're also her boyfriend's older sister. You might have given your blessing, but I'm sure it still feels a bit weird to go on to you about how much she wishes he'd come home."

"It would be weird if I wasn't hoping for the same thing," Elena said. "Life isn't the same without him around to cause trouble."

"I'm sure he'll be back soon," Stefan said. "Give the kid a chance to live his life. It's the first time he's really been away from you for a long time, Elena, and before you bring up art school, it's the first time he's been away from you without any serious adult supervision. I know he's twenty-two, but there were always professors and RAs and whoever else around when he was in college. Sure, he's in the program now, but he's got a lot of free time with no one there to keep an eye on him. Let him enjoy it until he decides that it's time for him to come home. He will eventually." His expression grew serious a moment later. "Everyone always does, whether they want to or not."

Elena's brow furrowed as Caroline rested her hand on Stefan's shoulder. Eventually, he shook his head and turned back to the food he was preparing. Elena looked at Caroline and raised her eyebrows. After a brief glance to make sure that Stefan wasn't looking, Caroline shrugged. A few minutes of silence followed until Elena made her way over to Stefan's side. She bumped him with her hip and picked up a knife.

"I'm helping," she said when he looked at her.

"I should've known," he said. "Cut the onions for me, would you?"

"So I get to be the one who cries over dinner," she said. "Thanks, Stefan. That's the best gift you could've ever given me."

He grinned. "No problem." He turned to look at Caroline, who was still leaning up against the counter. "Want to help, Care?"

She narrowed her eyes. "You know what my cooking skills are like. I can feed myself, but I'll leave the serious cooking to you two. It wouldn't do for me to mess it up."

"I hope you know that you'll be doing the majority of the cooking when the two of you get married, Stefan," Elena said. His eyes widened, and she laughed. "We all know that it's going to happen eventually, so don't even bother trying to deny it. You two can beat around the bush for as long as you like, but you know it'll happen as well as I do." When he wrinkled his nose, she grinned. "What, are you uncomfortable talking about marrying your current girlfriend with your ex? I thought we'd gotten past that."

"We have, but I'm uncomfortable talking about marrying my current girlfriend when she's in the room and I haven't even proposed yet," Stefan said.

"You said yet, which means it's going to happen," Elena said. "Besides, Caroline's been planning your wedding for months. It'll be all ready to go by the time you actually propose to her." Caroline reached out and shoved her shoulder, which made Elena laugh again. "You two really need to start communicating about these things, or you're going to have some serious miscommunication going on."

"Thanks for advice, miss relationship counselor," Caroline said.

Elena grinned at her. "No problem."

Their conversation turned to more mundane things after that, like the events that Caroline was planning—although she would reject the idea of labeling her work as "mundane"—and the think-piece that Stefan was writing for a magazine. They didn't return to the topic of Elena's writer's block during their analysis of Stefan's work, something that she was very grateful for.

As Stefan and Caroline began to discuss something that had happened to them the previous week, Elena finished chopping the onions and took the opportunity to look around the kitchen. She'd been in Stefan's house so many times she'd lost count, but she was routinely made jealous by the way his kitchen was set up. It was all dark cherry-stained wood and stainless steel, with large windows and plenty of lights in order to keep the room open and prevent it from being overwhelming. A matching island sat at the center of the room, a bowl of fruit resting on the middle of it. He had all sorts of cooking implements, including things that Elena had never heard of, and the kitchen's layout was set up so that a number of people could work in it at once without running into each other. She and Bonnie had commandeered Stefan's kitchen more than once for that reason, and as long as he got a share of their final product, he never once stopped them.

It took someone calling her name to break her out of her thoughts, and she shook her head to clear it before she looked at Caroline. "Sorry, I was just thinking."

"Clearly," Caroline said, though she smiled. "I just had a question, that's all."

"Ask away," Elena said.

"We were trying to decide who would host Christmas this year, and I was wondering if you'd do it," Caroline said. "I mean, we had Christmas here last year, and we just had Thanksgiving at Bonnie's, and I had Christmas last year, so..."

Elena thought about it for a moment and shrugged. "I don't see why not. I've got plenty of room, it can't hurt."

"Great," Caroline said. "Well, that's that problem solved. Now I just need to figure out who's going to host New Year's."

"I can do it," Stefan said. "We can go up to the old boarding house. I have someone who comes through and cleans it every week, so it should be in decent shape, and that thing has a rather fine stash of a variety of alcohol. Plus, there's enough beds in it that everyone can just spend the night instead of having to drive home."

"And there you have it, Care," Elena said. "Both of your problems solved in the span of five minutes."

"Caroline's having problems?" That was Bonnie, who had just entered the kitchen.

"Hey, Bon," Elena said. "And she was having problems, but we solved them for her. I'm hosting Christmas, and Stefan's going to host New Year's up at the boarding house. Now she doesn't have to worry about it." Bonnie raised her eyebrows, and Elena grinned. "I said that she didn't have to worry about it. I never said that she wouldn't worry about it."

Bonnie nodded. "Just as long as we're clear on that." She smiled a moment later. "Everything smells delicious, Stefan."

"Give me another fifteen minutes and everything will be ready," Stefan said. "There's still some bruschetta left if you want some, though I'm really not sure how. Elena and Caroline usually inhale it."

"We hardly do that," Elena said. "It's just good, that's all." She glanced at Bonnie. "Care's coming over after we're done here. Want to join us?"

"That sounds great," Bonnie said. "It's better than sitting around at home all evening."

"I take it you left Alicia in charge of The Beanery?" Stefan asked.

Bonnie smiled at the mention of the high school senior that worked part-time for her. "Yeah, I did. She's getting really good about everything, so I figured it was time that I let her keep an eye on the place. If it goes well, I'll let her take over a few more evening shifts so that Elena and I can have a little bit more of a break. It's always quiet enough after dinner for one person to handle, and I know she'll lock up properly."

"You'll have to work to pry me away from there," Elena said. "I need to get out of the house as much as possible right now so that I don't drive myself crazy."

Bonnie made a noise of sympathy. "I won't cut down your shifts until you tell me that you want me to. You know you can pretty much make your own schedule, so I'll let you decide when you want to do that."

"Thanks, Bon," Elena said. "I'll keep that in mind."

Bonnie opened her mouth to say something, only to snap it shut again when someone else walked into the kitchen, and it wasn't just any someone—it was the stranger from The Beanery. Just like when he came into the coffee shop, he wore dark colors. His black shirt was tight enough for Elena to notice that he was well-muscled, though not extensively so, and his dark grey pants were in a cut and fabric that made it abundantly clear that they were expensive, even if there wasn't a label prominently displayed on them.

His dark hair was ruffled, and his eyes were as vibrant as they'd been when he was sitting in the coffee shop, but they became much less beautiful when his expression turned into one of distaste. Elena fought against the urge to shiver when he turned his gaze to her and didn't remove it. "I wasn't aware that you were having guests tonight, Stefan."

Stefan sighed. Elena tore her gaze from the stranger's long enough to see Stefan's back and shoulders go tense before he turned around to face the other man. "Everyone, meet my brother Damon. Are you going to join us for dinner?"

"I think I'll pass," Damon said, removing his gaze from Elena and transferring it to Stefan. "Have fun with your little party, brother."

With that, he turned and left the kitchen. A few moments later, the sound of the front door opening and shutting cut through the silence. Stefan turned back to the cutting board and began to slice something up, the sound of the knife hitting the wood the only sound for a few moments. Eventually, Elena spoke.

"So that's the mysterious brother."

Stefan gave a dry laugh. "Yeah, that's Damon. He wasn't supposed to be here."

"When did he get into town?" Bonnie asked. "He was in The Beanery for hours on Friday."

"If I knew, I'd tell you," Stefan said. "I don't know when he got in, seeing as he's been trying to avoid me. You can see why his presence in my house would be confusing to me."

"Do you have any idea why he'd come back?" Bonnie asked. "You always told us that the two of you were estranged."

Stefan seemed to be thinking about something, but after a while, he shook his head. "I have no idea why he'd come back. Like you said, he and I haven't had the best relationship over the last few years."

"Are you going to be okay?" Elena asked.

Stefan shrugged. "He'll go back to avoiding me, and it'll be like nothing has changed. I'll be fine." Only the ferocity with which he drove the knife down towards the cutting board betrayed his statement.

"Let us know if there's anything we can do," Elena said. "We can stay here instead of going back to my place if you need us to."

He smiled a half-smile. "I will, and that's really not necessary. I'll be fine. Don't think about it too much. I try not to."

After a few moments of tense silence, Caroline changed the subject to how business was at The Beanery. Elena could see Stefan relax as the conversation turned away from his brother, but she continued to watch him as they finished cooking and throughout dinner. Every once in a while, when he thought no one was paying attention, his expression would fall for a moment, only for him to plaster a more pleasant one on as soon as someone turned to him again. She wasn't the only one who noticed, as both Bonnie and Caroline sent her concerned glances throughout the meal which she returned in kind.

After dinner, they all helped him clean up, and both Elena and Bonnie gave him a tight hug before they made their way outside to allow him and Caroline to say their goodbyes in private.

"Well, I guess that explains why he looked so familiar," Bonnie said as she leaned up against the door of her car. "He's Stefan's brother. We must've seen a picture of him at some point or something."

"I don't see what else it could be," Elena said. "Poor Stefan. First his father, and now this..."

"Giuseppe died two years ago," Bonnie said. "Stefan will handle it. He always does."

"I know, it just sucks," Elena said. She glanced at the porch when she heard the front door open and close, only to see Caroline letting herself out. "Let's go."

Later on that evening when the three of them were sitting in Elena's living room, glasses of wine and plates of chocolate cake in hand, Elena sighed, the noise barely audible over the log crackling in the fireplace.

"You sighed," Caroline said. "That's never a good sign. What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?"

"I just don't understand it, that's all," Elena said. "Stefan and Damon haven't spoken to one another in years, and yet all of a sudden, Damon's back? How weird is that? And to top it off, he's apparently trying to avoid Stefan, so why would he go sit in a public place for the majority of the day where he could very easily run into his brother?"

"It's their business, and we shouldn't interfere," Bonnie said. "But you're right, it is strange." She shifted in her seat. "And did you see the way that he was looking at you, Elena?"

Elena shivered. "I don't know if it's even possible to miss that." She shook her head. "Something's up there. I just wish that I knew what it was."

"You and the rest of us," Caroline said. "I'll do some digging and see what I can come up with."

"No, don't," Elena said. "Stefan will tell us what's going on if and when he's ready. Until then, I think I'm just going to wait and see if Damon comes back into The Beanery."

"If he does, you should try to talk to him," Bonnie said. "He seems to be awfully interested in you."

"Why exactly, I can't say, but I'll try," Elena said. She shivered once more. "I don't know what to make of him."

"When you figure it out, let us know, because I'd love to have something to pin to that face," Bonnie said. "Well, at least something interesting has finally come to Mystic Falls."

"For good or ill remains to be decided," Elena said.

There was silence after that. Elena turned her gaze to the fireplace, losing herself in the dancing flames. Yes, there was more to Damon Salvatore than met the eye. Of that much she was sure.

The only question was, what was it?

* * *

**A/N:**

**Thanks so much for the follows/favorites/reviews! I've never gotten that many with the first chapter of a story before, so here, have the second chapter in thanks. I can't promise when the next one will be up, because I really do need to stockpile them for when I go back to school, but I hate only having one chapter up, which is another reason for me to post this one.**

**I never write AUs, but I have to say that I'm loving this one already. I'm hoping I'll manage to get Damon right, because he's one of the more difficult characters that I've ever worked with, but it is an AU, so if he's not completely in character, it won't be as awful as it could be. I just hope that I'll be able to capture the general essence of him. We shall see.**

**Peace and love x**

**~AC**


	3. Chapter 3

The elder Salvatore made himself scarce in the days following his unexpected visit to Stefan's house, and life seemed to return to normal for everyone else. Caroline acquired three events that she was to plan for the spring, Bonnie began to rework the menu at The Beanery for the winter season, Stefan flew off to get a first-hand experience with something that he was writing an article about, and Elena—well, Elena was still having trouble with writer's block, no matter what she did. Even the images of the dark-haired, blue-eyed Damon that haunted the edge of her thoughts didn't seem to be enough to prompt any sort of ideas, and she would be lying if she said that she wasn't frustrated by that fact.

"I just don't get it," she said on a Monday afternoon as she had lunch with Bonnie and Caroline. "You'd think that the whole mysterious stranger thing would prompt some sort of _something_, but apparently not. I just don't seem to be lucky in that regard."

"I keep telling you, you're stressing out about this too much," Bonnie said. "Give it time. You'll come up with something."

"I'd love to give it time, but I've got deadlines," Elena said. "Lots of deadlines, which I am going to continue to miss if I don't come up with something, and missed deadlines equate to broken contracts and broken contracts equate to having to pay back my advances, which I could do, but it would basically wipe out my checking account, and while I have plenty of money in savings—"

Caroline cut her off. "Elena, you're going to drive yourself insane if you keep thinking like that. I'm with Bonnie. You just need to let it happen when it happens, deadlines be damned."

"Publishing companies don't take kindly to that line of thought," Elena said. She stirred her coffee absentmindedly. "No, I'm just going to have to dig up some old idea and use it, if only for the sake of buying myself some more time."

"You could also be honest," Bonnie said. "They signed you for a three-book contract for a reason. Sometimes good ideas take a while. If they want a good book from you, they'll just have to wait for it."

Elena shook her head. "They want a good book from me, but they want money more. They won't care if my next book is a flop, because people will buy it just for the name on the cover, at least for the first few weeks. As long as they break even, my name can be ruined. It doesn't matter to them."

"Tyler will pull for you, unless he's really changed," Caroline said. "Ask him for help."

"I've asked him for help so many times that I'm pretty sure he's getting sick of me, and he's getting paid to work with me, so that's saying something," Elena said. She sighed and shook her head again. "I'll just have to find another way."

Caroline and Bonnie exchanged a glance, one that Elena missed as she was too busy stewing over her writer's block to notice, which was probably just as well.

On the following Thursday afternoon, just after four o'clock, she tied on her apron and made her way out from the back room to stand behind the counter of The Beanery, her laptop and a notebook tucked under her arm. Bonnie was straightening the chairs when Elena emerged into the front room, and she looked up as the door closed.

"Thanks for taking closing, Elena," Bonnie said. "I really appreciate it, especially with everything that you've got going on."

Elena set her laptop down on the counter and lifted her notebook in the air, a wry smile on her face. "You mean this? It's always quiet on Thursdays, Bonnie. I'll have plenty of downtime to do exactly what I do at home, otherwise known as come up with absolutely nothing. It's going to be great."

Bonnie chuckled. "Your pessimism is going to take you far in life, I hope you know that." She glanced at her watch. "I'm going to head out. There's something I need to do."

"And by something you need to do, you mean you need to call my brother?" Elena asked. Bonnie wouldn't meet her gaze, and Elena grinned. "You two have been dating for ages, Bon. You don't have to keep acting like it's some huge secret. I'll keep telling you that I'm happy for you and perfectly okay with it until you actually understand that."

Bonnie looked up, though she still wouldn't look directly at Elena. "Yeah, I know. I'll just... Go."

"Have fun talking to Jeremy," Elena said as Bonnie walked out of the café. "Tell him I said hello!"

Only the slight raise of Bonnie's hand let Elena know that her friend had heard her.

As soon as the door shut, Elena pulled a stool around to the area behind the counter and set it in front of her laptop. She opened the computer and turned it on with one hand as she flipped open her notebook with the other. There were notes scribbled across its pages, with no real order to them. Her gaze traveled from one written thought to the next, and when she reached the bottom of the page, she groaned.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," she muttered as she logged in on her computer. "This is so..."

Her sentence trailed off into a stream of quiet curses, though they were no less emphatic for the lack of volume. She opened a document on her laptop, only to be faced with the same image that had been plaguing her for over a month—a white screen that contained nothing but a flashing cursor. Her friends would just tell her that she was being overdramatic if she said anything to them, but she would swear that what she saw haunted her dreams every night. It wasn't right, being a writer with nothing to work on. In all the years that she'd been writing, she'd never been short of ideas, and good ones at that. In fact, most of the time she had too many. Despite her attempts to write them down when they came to her, none of her former sources of inspiration had been of any use in starting something new. They were all too dull, too unoriginal, too unexciting. It didn't help that her publishing company wanted something poignant, something that would strike meaning into the heart of anyone who read it.

She was still silently cursing herself and her computer when the bell over the front door rang to signal the arrival of a customer. A small glimmer of hope struck her, only to fade away when she looked up to see that the new customer wasn't anyone of import—Mrs. Oswald was perfectly nice, of course, but she'd known Elena since the younger woman was in diapers, and she couldn't offer anything up except stories about what Mystic Falls used to be.

Elena was pleasant as she poured Mrs. Oswald's usual cup of coffee, but it wasn't until the older woman took the mug and moved to sit down that Elena had an idea.

"Mrs. Oswald, I have a question," Elena said as she made her way out from behind the counter.

"Yes, dear?" Mrs. Oswald asked, her grey eyes bright behind her glasses.

Elena sat down opposite her at the small café table. "You've lived here your whole life, right?"

Mrs. Oswald nodded. "Yes, of course I have." She smiled. "Mystic Falls, born and raised."

"So you'd know the Salvatores, then," Elena said, crossing her fingers under the table. "They're a founding family, aren't they?"

"Oh yes," Mrs. Oswald said. "I knew Giuseppe, rest his soul. I never thought anything but time would be the end of that man, but I suppose his heart attack proved me wrong." She chuckled. "Why, I used to look after him when his parents had to leave him at the house. I wasn't much older than him, only by a few years, but you can't leave a young boy alone in that old boarding house. That would just be asking for something bad to happen. He never liked that much, always said he was responsible enough to be left on his own."

"Do you know anything about his sons?" Elena asked. "I know Stefan, obviously, but the other one..."

"Damon?" Mrs. Oswald asked. Elena nodded, and Mrs. Oswald shook her head. "No, I can't say I do. I didn't have much to do with Giuseppe after I went away to college, and while I did meet the boy when he was small, that was about the extent of our interaction. Why do you ask?"

Elena smiled slightly. "I was just curious, since Stefan mentioned him the other day." She stood up. "I'm sorry I disturbed you. I'll let you get back to your coffee."

Mrs. Oswald waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. "Oh, it's no trouble at all, dear. I'm always happy to chat."

"I'll keep that in mind," Elena said. She smiled once more and returned to her stool behind the counter.

Mrs. Oswald's explanation was well enough, but it still didn't tell Elena anything about the years between Damon's birth and the time that the Salvatores moved following when Stefan was born. She knew that Stefan's mother had passed away while he was young, but not much more than that. He didn't say much about his family as a general rule, and if it weren't for a few very brief statements in high school, she wouldn't have known that he had a brother. Tensions obviously ran high there, but she had no further clues as to why that was, and every certainty that Stefan wasn't going to tell her anything about it, no matter how close they were.

That was the thing about secrets in Mystic Falls—while most traveled fast, the ones that didn't were buried, and they were buried deep. Family histories, scandals, anything that could paint a less than pleasant picture of a particular individual, it was all buried if it was deemed necessary, especially when it concerned a founding family. Their histories were muddy, Elena knew that much, as her family's past wasn't quite as perfect as the Founder's Day celebrations led everyone in Mystic Falls to believe, but she also knew that when a founding family wanted something locked up, it was. Whatever it was in the past of the Salvatore family that they wanted hidden, it wasn't going to become public knowledge anytime soon. An internet search likely wouldn't return much either, as every founding family kept their records the old-fashioned way, bound up in ink and paper and locked in safes in their houses. Elena had the Gilbert records hidden behind a painting in her home office, though she'd never taken the time to go through them. Jeremy had been the one interested in that sort of thing, and he'd gotten over that stage long before he graduated from high school.

"I wonder..." Elena muttered to herself.

"What was that, dear?" Mrs. Oswald asked.

Elena raised her voice. "Nothing, Mrs. Oswald. I was just thinking out loud, that's all."

Silence fell over the café after that, broken only by the occasional tap of the keys as Elena wrote something and then deleted all of it, or the clink of Mrs. Oswald's mug being placed on its saucer every now and then. Elena resisted the urge to fetch her headphones from her bag in the back room, as she knew Bonnie would disapprove of her listening to music that way while she was working, even if the café was nearly empty. Instead, she contented herself by fiddling with the radio that played over the café's speakers, desperate for something to do with her hands so that she didn't slam her laptop shut and break it in her frustration—it had never happened before, but as Caroline would say every time she talked Elena into doing something that wasn't quite within her comfort zone, there was a first time for everything.

Mrs. Oswald finished her coffee and left, the bell jingling as the door opened and shut. Elena got off her stool behind the counter and went to fetch the mug and saucer from the empty table, humming along to the song on the radio in the process. She put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and began to tap her fingers on the counter to the rhythm of the song. It was catchy, though not something that Elena would have purchased for herself, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that it was distracting her from that damned cursor flashing tauntingly on her laptop screen.

She did everything she could to keep herself from sitting down and staring at it when the song ended—she reorganized all of the dishes, wiped down the counter and all of the tables, straightened all the chairs despite the fact that Bonnie had done it just before she left and Mrs. Oswald had been the only person to come in since then, and even sorted through all of the supplies in the back room. By the time she finished with that, the sun had started to go down outside, the bits of the sky that she could see through the windows turning orange and yellow, and her cursor was still flashing on the blank document.

Elena took one look at the tiny black bar and groaned. She laid her head on her arms on the counter and groaned again, the noise covering the sound of the bell above the door. As a result, she didn't notice that anyone had entered the café until they spoke.

"Do I need to call an ambulance, or are you going to be able to get me a coffee?"

The voice was familiar, though the edge of humour to it wasn't. Elena lifted her head to see the stranger—no, not the stranger, he had a name, _Damon_—standing on the opposite side of the counter, his hands tucked in the pockets of his leather jacket. There was a glimmer of laughter in his eyes as he looked at her, and though she tried, she wasn't able to force a smile on her face. Instead, she propped up her arm and rested her chin in her hand, her gaze raking over him.

"I'll get you a coffee once I get over my existential crisis," she said. "Provided you can wait that long, of course. If not, there's a convenience store down the street that can sell you a bag of perfectly mediocre coffee to make at home."

He sat down on a stool opposite her, the counter providing a few feet of distance between them. "Will your existential crisis be over before this place closes?"

She shrugged and lifted her head so that her arm could drop to the counter. "That remains to be seen." He didn't say anything as she looked around the darkening and otherwise-empty café. "If you don't mind my asking, what brings you out here on a Thursday night? Most people want their coffee before dinner so that they can actually sleep at night."

One corner of his mouth lifted up slightly. It wasn't a smile, not really, but it was something. "I'm not most people."

"Apparently," she said. She grabbed one of the mugs that rested beneath the lip of the counter and flipped it over so that it rested on a saucer. As she poured coffee into it, she spoke again. "Black coffee, then?"

He nodded. "That existential crisis ended quickly."

"Oh, it's not over yet," she said as she set his coffee in front of him. "I'm just taking a momentary break from it." Her gaze returned to her laptop screen. "It's never-ending, really. I get the occasional distraction that lets me forget about it for a little while, but it doesn't seem to want to go away for longer than an hour or two."

After taking a sip from the mug, he set it down on its saucer. "And is there a reason for this, or are you suffering just because?"

"Work," she said. He raised his eyebrows, and she shook her head. "No, not here. This is my fun job. No, I'm having issues with my real job."

"And what would that be?" he asked.

"I'm a wri—" She paused. "Why am I even telling you this?"

He quirked one eyebrow, the corner of his mouth rising slightly too. "Because I have a face that encourages people to tell their secrets." She made a noise of disbelief, and the corner of his mouth lifted further. "Or so I've been told, anyway."

She shook her head. "No, it's probably just the fact that you're new here and I enjoy having someone around who doesn't know all the sordid details of my life." When he raised his eyebrows again, she narrowed her eyes. "That's not to say that I enjoy having _you_ here, though. It's just a nice change from the general atmosphere of Mystic Falls, that's all."

He took another sip of his coffee. "I know it well enough. I did live here for a while when I was younger." She said nothing, and he nodded. "But you already knew that, didn't you?"

"I know that Stefan's family lived here until just after he was born, and then all of you moved," she said. "I also know that you're at least a few years older than him, which means that you have to have some memories of Mystic Falls from before you left, even if they aren't particularly interesting ones."

"I'll have you know that all of my memories are interesting," he said. "The ones from here are just..." His lip curled. "Less interesting than the others."

"Point taken," she said. Her gaze turned to her laptop, and she sighed. "I should probably just shut the damn thing down."

"Real job?" he asked. She nodded. "You're allowed to do work for your other job when you're working here?"

"Well, my best friend does own the place, and she's not about to fire me," Elena said. She gestured around the room. "Besides, it's not like it's that busy in here. I don't do my other work when we have a lot of customers, but when it's quiet..."

"It gives you something to do other than sit around and twiddle your thumbs," he said. "I get it."

"What about you?" she asked. "I doubt you're in Mystic Falls for the sake of having fun, because anyone who says they are is lying, so what do you do?"

She nearly flinched at the wall that fell over his features. In an instant, they were impassive, his eyes cold. "That's not important."

She stared at him, biting her lip as she attempted to decipher his expression. When she didn't find anything, she looked back at her laptop and began to type. Nothing that she wrote had any significance, but he didn't need to know that. She just needed to keep herself busy so that she didn't have to look at him.

He made no move to apologize as the minutes wore on, and she didn't offer up any other conversation piece. Instead, she began to write down a description of him.

_Dark hair, almost black, messy, but not in a manner that suggests laziness. Blue eyes, almost cerulean. Muscular, though not overly so. Dark jeans, black shirt, black leather jacket. Probably wearing boots. Definitely handsome, and it seems like he knows it. Very charismatic until you bring up what his job is and what he's doing in Mystic Falls._

It was an exercise that she'd learned in a writing class in college, something that was supposed to help the ideas flow. The whole idea of stream-of-consciousness writing made sense to Elena in theory, but it had never quite worked for her in practice. Some of her classmates had taken to it like a fish to water, but it had only ever served to give her something to do for about five minutes before she ran out of things to say about whatever it was that she was describing. No, her strength lay in describing things that weren't real, in verbalizing what she saw in her mind's eye when she looked at a character. The only problem with that was that she had to have an idea in order to have anything to describe.

"How long have you lived in Mystic Falls?"

She jumped at the sound of his voice, hitting a string of meaningless characters as her hands slammed down on her keyboard. After deleting them, she looked at him. His expression was still guarded, though he was watching her with something akin to interest.

Memories touched at the edges of her thoughts as she looked at him, and after a moment she shook her head. "Almost my entire life. I was born here, I lived here until I went to college, and then I moved back here about a year and a half ago."

"So you lived somewhere else for a while, then?" he asked. "You wanted to get out of here, I expect." An indecipherable expression passed over his face for a moment. "I can understand that."

"I don't know if I wanted to get out of here, exactly," she said. "I just wanted to... Experience the world somewhere other than Mystic Falls or Whitmore. I think I sort of always knew that I was going to end up here again, and I'm not about to complain about that. I've got a perfectly nice house, and nearly all of my friends are here. Caroline, Bonnie, who owns this place..."

"Stefan," Damon said. There was something in his tone that Elena couldn't place, and if he hadn't already shown himself to be incredibly difficult to figure out, she would have said it was bitterness.

She nodded. "Stefan." There was a brief pause before she shrugged. "My friend Tyler lives in New York, and our friend Matt moved to Boston with his girlfriend Rebekah. Other than them, though, everyone else is here, or at least, they will be when my brother gets back."

"You have a brother?" Damon asked.

"Jeremy," Elena said, a smile making its way onto her face. "He's two years younger. He's doing an art program in New York right at the moment, but he should be home any day now."

Something flashed across Damon's face again before he nodded. He stared at his coffee as he said, "Everyone always ends up back here, don't they?"

"It seems that way, doesn't it?" she asked. She looked outside, where darkness had fallen. "I guess there's just something about this place that brings people back to it, whether they want it to happen or not."

They fell silent again after that, her gaze locked on the description of him that she'd written on her laptop, his trained on the wall or the coffee that he was still drinking. When he finished it, he slid the empty mug and saucer towards her.

"I'll take a second cup, but you'd better make it decaf," he said.

She smiled slightly at that statement. "What, you actually want to be able to sleep tonight?"

He shrugged. "I've heard that sleep can be good for you every now and then."

Her smile widened as she poured more coffee into his mug. "Only every now and then? What are you, a vampire?"

"Anything's possible, right?" he asked. She passed the mug and saucer back to him and raised her eyebrows. The corner of his mouth lifted up again—she was starting to realize that he wasn't one for full-blown smiles. "Kidding."

"I figured as much, but like you said, anything's possible," she said. "Besides, if it was going to happen anywhere, it would happen here, just because. I mean, think about the headlines. 'Small Virginia Town Home To First Real Vampire.' We'd be all over the news."

His expression twisted for a second before he gave a quiet chuckle. "Anything but that."

"Yeah, I'll take my quiet, small-town life," Elena said. "It's peaceful here, unlike New York."

"You're not a fan of the Big Apple then, I take it?" he asked.

"I like it in small doses," she said. "I guess it's just a byproduct of growing up here. My taste for small towns, I mean."

"Perhaps," he said. They sat in silence as he finished his coffee, and once he did, he set a bill down on the counter beside his mug and saucer and stood up. "Have a good night, Elena." When her brow furrowed, he nodded in her direction. "It's embroidered on your apron, and besides, it's not fair for you to know my name if I don't know yours."

With that, he left the café. She sat back on her stool as the sound of the bell faded out and then glanced at the clock. They'd been there for close to two hours, and yet she was somehow more confused than she had been before he walked in.

Seriously, who the hell was he?

* * *

**A/N:**

**I really don't update this frequently as a general rule, but you guys have been so generous with your comments and whatnot over the last couple of days that I couldn't stop myself. You deserve some real Damon-Elena interaction as a reward, so here it is.**

**I don't know when I'll be updating again after this (Probably before the end of the week if I keep writing at this pace, but we'll see), but for now, you have three chapters to read over and over again. **

**I'm seriously loving this. I've never actually written an AU before, but it's loads of fun and I'm probably going to end up doing it again once I'm done with this one—I don't know if I'll be writing it for them, but I don't think it's a complete stretch to say that there's almost definitely a James/Lily AU in the future, and I'll probably end up writing more AH Delena AUs if I have more good ideas because I just love messing with them like this. It's great.**

**Thanks for reading and favoriting and following and reviewing and I'll talk to you guys next time!**

**(Also, if you want to tide yourselves over until my next update and read things ahead of time, I'll be posting excerpts from chapter four onward on my Tumblr, the URL of which is the same as my username on here (unicornstarfighter).)**

**Peace and love x**

**~AC**


	4. Chapter 4

Damon didn't make an appearance at The Beanery that Friday during Elena's shift, and he didn't go in during Bonnie's either (Elena checked). Business at the coffee shop was normal, Elena continued to all but tear her hair out over her writer's block, and the residents of Mystic Falls seemed to be generally unconcerned about the addition of an extra Salvatore to the population, though unconcerned might not have been the best word. Unobservant would probably have been a better choice, as nobody seemed to take notice of Damon's presence. Whether that was because he was simply innocuous to everyone except Elena and her friends or because he'd taken pains to keep it that way, Elena wasn't sure, but he wasn't a topic of conversation the way that she would have expected him to be.

On Saturday afternoon, she found herself in her kitchen pacing back and forth in front of the oven. The whole group was having dinner at Bonnie's that night, and Elena had agreed to bring dessert. She hadn't thought about her writer's block during the time that it took for her to prepare the apple pie, but as she waited for it to bake she found herself stewing over her lack of inspiration once more. She had less than a month to come up with something meaningful, something that would hit whoever read it right in the heart. Coming up with a story that did that was next to impossible, let alone coming up with it in only a few weeks. It took writers an entire lifetime to touch on that story, and she wasn't even twenty-five yet. Sure, she had life experiences to draw on—and she'd bet she had more of them than most people her age did—but that wasn't a guarantee for a good story.

The timer beeped and she opened the oven door to look at the pie, only to inhale appreciatively when the scent of apples and sugar filled the room. A brief glance at the pie revealed that its crust was perfectly golden, so she put on oven mitts and pulled it out. Once in was safely placed on a cooling rack, she turned off the oven and went up to her room.

She'd grown up in that house, and despite the fact that she was the only one living in it, she hadn't laid claim to the master suite. It had been uninhabited for quite some time, but she couldn't bring herself to move in. It would always be her parents' room, no matter how long she lived there. Instead, when she moved back to Mystic Falls, she returned to the room that she had called home all the way until college and during all of the breaks that she'd spent back in the small Virginia town. The room was more than enough, or so she told everybody when they asked why she hadn't taken over the master suite. There was plenty of space and she had her own bathroom, and besides, it wasn't like she had to fight with anyone else over who got the shower first in the morning. No, the master suite would remain empty, that much she was sure of. Living in it just didn't feel right.

Her room had changed over the years, as it always happened with every childhood space, but a few things remained constant, such as the large mirror that hung over the dresser, and it was in that mirror that she looked as she carefully applied the tiniest amount of makeup. She didn't have enough sleep deprivation to need anything other than eyeliner and some mascara, a fact that she was very grateful for. Yes, she could spend hours in front of the mirror perfecting her appearance, but it wasn't something that she liked to do, and she considered it to largely be a waste of time unless there was a special event that she was attending—well, an event or something with a Caroline-mandated dress code.

She traded her yoga pants and sweatshirt for a pair of skinny jeans, black boots, and a red sweater. After a brief glance in the mirror, she wound a black scarf around her neck and then ran a brush through her hair. Her friends had always cursed her for her good fortune throughout high school, as her hair dried straight without any fussing on her part, though both Bonnie and Caroline had eventually developed strategies for their own that minimized preparation time to no more than a few minutes.

Elena took one last glance at herself in the mirror before she went back down to the kitchen. It took her a few minutes of digging around in the cupboards, but she eventually found a plastic cake tray that would serve to hold and cover the pie on the way to Bonnie's. It was also something that Elena could leave there without any stress on her part, as she fully intended to pawn the leftovers off on her friends rather than bringing them home with her and would 'forget' them if that was what it took. Of course, it wasn't like she ever had a problem convincing everyone else to keep the things that she baked, but she still liked to be prepared anyway

Once she had the pie situated, she fetched her coat and scarf from the hall closet and put them on. She picked up the pie once she was suitably bundled up and made her way out of the house, balancing the cake tray carefully as she locked the door behind her.

Bonnie lived just under a mile and a half away, and while it was cold, the walk wasn't unpleasant. Taking the time to make it also saved Elena from twenty minutes of sitting around thinking about her writer's block, so that was only more incentive to walk instead of driving her car over. Sure, she could think while she was walking, but she had to pay attention to things like approaching cars and not walking into trees (it had happened before, and she had made a point of being constantly aware since then), so she was still better off than she would have been at home.

Wind bit at her face as she walked down the sidewalk, whipping her hair around so that it obscured her vision. She reached up carefully to brush the wayward strands behind her ears, and once they were safely out of her face, ducked her head in an effort to keep them from getting blown around again. She could feel a chill seeping through her coat, but she resisted the urge to turn around and get her car. It wasn't that far, and she'd already started walking. It was just a bit of wind. Now, if there were snow, it might have been a different story, but wind wasn't that big of a deal. She could handle wind.

She kept her head down the entire way to Bonnie's, only looking up to check her path occasionally or to make sure that she wasn't going to walk into an intersection. When she finally reached the walk up to Bonnie's front porch, she all but ran to the stairs. The only thing keeping her from actually doing it was the knowledge that she would probably drop the pie.

With the cake tray carefully balanced on her arm, she reached out and pressed the doorbell. Normally she would have just let herself in, but Bonnie's front door came in two parts and opening both would probably also involve dropping the pie. If she'd driven, she might have considered it, but after the walk, it seemed like a bit of a waste.

It didn't take Bonnie long to come to the door, and her eyes widened when she saw Elena. "You didn't walk, did you?"

Elena shrugged and smiled as Bonnie gestured for her to walk into the house. "Uh... I won't answer that question, because I know you're not going to like my response." She walked past Bonnie into the front hallway. "If it makes it any better, I brought pie."

"Pie is great, but you freezing yourself isn't worth it," Bonnie said, though her gaze traveled to the cake tray. "Out of curiosity, what flavor is it?"

With a grin, Elena held out the cake tray. "Apple. Now, would you mind taking it? I had to carry the damn thing the whole way here."

"My favorite," Bonnie said as she took the tray from Elena. "Let's go put this in the kitchen. I left Stefan and Caroline there."

"Please tell me that Caroline isn't cooking anything," Elena said, following Bonnie down the hall.

"She isn't, don't worry," Bonnie said. "And Stefan's only on salad duty. You're all right with having salmon, yeah?"

"Bonnie, your salmon is always perfect," Elena said. "Unless something's changed in the last five minutes, I still love it."

Caroline and Stefan looked up as Elena and Bonnie entered the kitchen. Stefan had a knife in his hand and a cutting board covered in vegetables in front of him, while Caroline was perched on a stool at the island in the center of the kitchen.

"Still love what?" Caroline asked.

"Salmon," Elena said. "Well, Bonnie's salmon, anyway. Old family recipe, right Bon?"

Bonnie nodded. "That it is, or so Grams always told me."

"I mean, I doubt she lied about that," Elena said. "It's not like she really had a reason to. Besides, we had it enough times as kids that I don't really care if she's telling the truth or not. It makes me feel like we're nine again. Remember that one night over the summer when we came back after ten and she was ready to kill us, but she still fed us dinner anyway?"

Bonnie laughed as she turned to the oven. "She was so mad that night. We got that whole lecture on how our parents would never forgive her if she lost us, and how we couldn't stay out that late without telling someone where we were..." Her voice trailed off, and she shook her head after a moment. "We were quite the pair, weren't we?"

"Still are," Stefan said. "When you throw Caroline into the mix, it's just asking for trouble."

"Hey," Caroline said. "I'll have you know that I'm perfectly responsible."

Elena chuckled. "I think that depends on your definition of 'perfectly responsible,' Care." Caroline narrowed her eyes, and Elena grinned. "That's not to say that you're not responsible at all, but perfect might be a bit of a stretch."

"Like you're any better," Caroline said.

"When we were in high school I definitely wasn't," Elena said. Her expression clouded. "Now, though... I like a quiet life."

"After everything, you have every right to," Stefan said. "I'm right with you on that one. Quiet is good."

"It's safe, and at the moment that's all I really care about," Elena said. "When it's quiet, things make sense." Her thoughts drifted to the conversation she'd had with Damon two days before. "Well, mostly."

"Mystic Falls is the perfect place for quiet," Caroline said. "Sometimes I wonder why I didn't move to New York. I think I would've done well in the city."

"You would've been in the city, but then you and Stefan never would have gotten together, and we all know that would have been a tragedy," Bonnie said. "I mean, I doubt that you'd still be single, but Stefan..."

Elena and Caroline laughed as Stefan sent a mock-glare in Bonnie's direction. "I wouldn't have any trouble finding a girlfriend if I had to," he said. He glanced at Elena. "Elena, if I were single, would you—"

She cut him off before he could finish his sentence. "No." His eyes widened, and she shrugged. "We had our run, Stefan, and it was nice, but you and I aren't what I'd call relationship material anymore. We're much better off as friends. I could always get you the number of that cute waitress at The Grill though."

"Karen?" Stefan asked. He looked at Caroline, who raised her eyebrows, and then back at Elena. "I'm good."

"Yes, you are," Caroline said. A mischievous smile spread across her face a moment later. "Speaking of single people, there's only one in the room right now. When are you going to find yourself someone, Elena?"

Elena wrinkled her nose. "I'm not going to _find_ myself someone." She shook her head. "No, I'm not really looking right now. If the right person comes along, then so be it, but I need to focus on other things—more important things." She laughed softly a moment later. "Besides, this is Mystic Falls. Think about the prospects."

"She has a point," Bonnie said. "The majority of the guys here are... Well, you've seen them, Care. Unless..." She exchanged a glance with Caroline, and then shook her head. "No, that's stupid. Forget I said anything."

"Don't forget the first part of it," Elena said. "My options range from severely limited to nonexistent. I'll take worrying about coming up with an idea for my damn book over a relationship right now. That's about as much commitment as I can handle at the moment."

"Whatever works for you is what you should be doing," Stefan said. "You're not even twenty-five yet. You have plenty of time to figure things out for yourself."

"Thank you," Elena said. "I think so too." She looked at Bonnie. "Speaking of relationships, have you talked to my brother recently?"

Bonnie made a face. "Can you please not phrase it that way? That's when it gets weird." Elena fixed her with an even stare, and Bonnie smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I talked to him yesterday, and before you ask, he didn't give me any details about when he'd be home. You're going to have to keep trying to pry it out of him yourself."

Elena groaned. "I just need to know if I should be expecting him for Christmas dinner or not. I don't understand why it's so hard for him to just say whether or not he'll be home by then."

"He probably doesn't want to tie himself into anything," Stefan said. "If he tells you he's coming home, he can't change his mind."

"I think you mean he can change his mind, but he won't, because that's not how Jeremy is," Caroline said. "If he promises you something, Elena, he's going to try his best to come through on it, no matter what else happens."

"That wasn't always true," Elena said.

Bonnie sighed. "No, it wasn't, but it is now. He doesn't want to disappoint you anymore. He says it's happened enough already."

"Well, that isn't a lie," Elena said. "We've had our fair share of messy moments." After a momentary pause, she smiled. "Enough about that, though. Let's talk about something interesting."

"Like what?" Bonnie asked.

"I don't know," Elena said, shrugging. "Someone come up with something. Why do I have to be the one responsible for coming up with conversation topics?"

"You don't," Stefan said. "I have a proposal for all of you—well, mostly for Caroline, but for all of you, if you're interested."

"And that would be?" Elena asked. "You'd better not be asking all of us to marry you." Everyone turned to stare at her, and she raised her eyebrows. "What? He said proposal."

Stefan chuckled. "I'm glad you're getting creative with your thoughts, Elena, but I don't think that's the direction that they should be going in." She made a face at him, and he chuckled again. "No, I was going to suggest that we all go up to the old boarding house before Christmas to decorate it. I know that we'll be spending Christmas at your house, Elena, but I don't think it would do us any harm to make sure that it's appropriately festive for New Year's."

"I think that sounds like a great idea," Elena said. "We can make sure that there are plenty of lights, and maybe put up a tree or two as well."

"We'll have to make sure that we stick to a metallic theme," Caroline said. "Lots of silver and gold for New Year's, rather than red and green for Christmas. If we're going to do this, we have to make sure we do it right."

She reached for the pad of paper and the pen that Bonnie always kept on the island and began to write things down. Elena rolled her eyes as Stefan laughed.

"This is what I meant when I said that it was mostly a proposal for Caroline," he said. "I know the two of you will help, but I knew that she was going to take it on like it's another event that she's planning."

"We'll be there on the day of, and she can give us her orders," Bonnie said, grinning. "It's how things always were in high school. I'm sure we won't have too much trouble slipping into those roles again, will we, Elena?"

"It's doubtful," Elena said. "We spent so much time putting dances together for her that I don't think I could forget how to follow her orders if I tried to."

"I've left you two with a valuable life skill, so I'd hope you aren't trying to forget it," Caroline said, her gaze still locked on the notepad. "Besides, you know you had fun with all of the planning in high school."

"We did, and you did me a favor taking over the dance committee junior year," Elena said. "I wasn't really equipped to handle it, what with... Yeah." She smiled. "Decorating for New Year's is going to be great, and with Caroline in charge of designing everything, we're going to have the most tastefully decorated building in all of Mystic Falls."

"Aside from my house," Caroline said. She was still writing on the notepad when she spoke.

"Obviously," Elena said. "Seriously, Caroline, your ability to multitask astounds me."

Caroline paused in her writing, and she looked up to grin at Elena. "It's an acquired skill."

"I was just going to describe it as one of those Caroline Forbes things, but whatever you say," Elena said.

There was a round of laughter at that, and from that point on, the conversation stayed on lighter things.

Just after nine o'clock when they were all sitting in Bonnie's living room, cups of tea or decaf coffee in hand, Elena leaned forward to place her empty mug on the coffee table. "Much as I hate to go, I should probably head out so that I'm home before it gets too late."

"You're sure you don't want a ride?" Stefan asked. He'd offered multiple times over the course of dinner.

"No, it's fine," Elena said, just as she'd responded each time he'd asked. "It's really not that far. I'll see you at work on Monday, Bon."

"Yeah," Bonnie said. "Thanks again for the pie. It was delicious."

"You're welcome," Elena said. She stood up and smiled. "See you guys."

After a round of hugs, she went out to the front hallway. It didn't take her long to fetch her coat and scarf from the hall closet, and she let herself out of the house as soon as she was appropriately clothed.

Snow was falling as she made her way down the stairs, a light dusting already covering the ground. It began to come down harder as she walked down the street, and by the time she'd made it two blocks, she could barely see.

"Of course," she muttered to herself. "There would be a freak blizzard as soon as I left, because why not? It's not like I haven't had enough bad luck to last me a lifetime or anything."

She continued to trudge on, only to stop a couple of blocks later when she heard the sound of a car horn. As she turned around, she saw lights come to a halt a few feet away from her, and a moment later, the brief hint of a voice through the wind and snow. She stepped closer to the car to see Damon. He'd rolled the window down on the passenger's side, and he gestured for her to come closer.

"Want a ride home?" he asked once she stopped in front of the window. "It's a bad idea for anyone to be out in this."

"Says the person who's out in this," Elena said.

She could see him fighting to not roll his eyes. After a moment, he shook his head. "Yeah, I shouldn't be out in this, but I'm in a car with four-wheel drive. You're on foot, and I'm willing to bet that it's taken you three times as long as usual to get here from wherever it is you came from. Let me drive you home." She stared at him, and he sighed. "Can you please just get in the car before I get snow all through it?"

After a moment of internal debate, Elena opened the door and got into the car. Damon rolled the window up as soon as the door shut, and as she buckled her seatbelt, the car began to move forward.

"Make a left at the next intersection," Elena said after a few moments of silence.

"Do you even know where you are?" Damon asked. "I don't know about you, but I can't see much."

"I can see enough to see the tree that I always used to hide behind when we had neighborhood-wide games of hide-and-go-seek," Elena said. "It's pretty much straight once you make the turn, don't worry."

"I wasn't, but all right," Damon said.

They were quiet the rest of the way back to her house, aside from the directions that she had to give him over the last few minutes. Despite the fact that they had little more than a mile to go, it took the better part of twenty minutes to navigate the snowy streets with the limited visibility.

When Damon brought the car to a stop in Elena's driveway, she paused with her hand on the door and turned to look at him. "Would you like to come in, at least until it stops snowing so hard? I can make coffee, if you want."

He gave her that tilted half-smile he had seemed so fond of the previous Thursday, the one where only one corner of his mouth rose and his eyebrow quirked. "If you want my company, all you have to do is ask."

She sighed. "I was just trying to be nice, but I'll take that as a no."

She was about the open the door when he spoke. "That would be great, thank you."

They both got out of the car, and he followed her up the path to the porch. It took her a moment to get her keys out of her pocket, and another moment to unlock the front door. She stamped her boots on the mat just inside the door, and after a few moments, they joined her coat and scarf in the hall closet. When she turned to take Damon's coat, he'd already taken a hanger and hung it up.

"The kitchen's this way," she said after a brief pause, gesturing with her hand.

He followed her down the hall and into the kitchen. She pulled the necessary supplies out of the cupboards as he looked around the room, and they were both quiet as the water heated and the coffee brewed. Once they both had a mug in hand, Elena made her way out of the kitchen, confident that he would follow her.

He didn't disappoint.

After they entered the living room, she lit the log in the fireplace before she took a seat on the couch, while he made his way to the bookshelves that stood on either side of the television. Her gaze was locked on nothing as she sipped her coffee, her thoughts wandering. He held his mug and took the occasional drink from it as he ran his hands along the books that lined the shelves. The only sounds in the room were that of them drinking and the occasional crackle of the fire, and Elena found herself being lulled into a state of relaxation by the quiet.

It was broken after a while when Damon made a noise at the back of his throat. "_The Catcher In The Rye_? Really?"

She wrinkled her nose. "Oh, I didn't like it. My brother loves it, that's the only reason why it's there. If he didn't love it so much, it would be on one of the bottom shelves in my office."

He turned around to look at her, his eyes glinting. "You don't like it?"

"Didn't I just say that?" she asked.

He moved to take a seat at the opposite end of the couch, the mug still in his hands. "I do believe you're the first person I've ever met who also disliked _Catcher_."

That made her lean forward. "Really? I've never understood the fuss over it. I can see why some people would like it, but Holden always struck me as such an—"

"Unsympathetic character?" Damon asked. She nodded, and a small smile made its way onto his face—a real smile, not the one he'd given her all of Thursday evening and earlier that night in the car. "He annoyed me when I read it, can you believe that? Getting through the whole thing took me so much longer than it should have."

"No, I completely understand that," Elena said. "It's like, it's this tiny book, and it shouldn't take long to read it at all, but you have to get past this character who's just so... I don't even have a word for him, and then it ends up taking ages, and by the time you finish it you can't even remember your reason for starting it in the first place."

"Exactly," Damon said. "Now, if you want to talk about classics, we should talk about _Fahrenheit 451_, because that's a good book."

"Agreed," Elena said. "I couldn't put it down when I read it, which is saying something. Most of what have been deemed 'The Classics' bore me. _Fahrenheit_, though... That was good. It really makes you think about what we do with information and about what it really means to be happy in today's world."

"I'd say that it leaves you with a desire to not screw up the way that they did in the world that Montag lived in," Damon said. "There's a lot that we can't let ourselves forget, not if we want our civilization to continue."

As they entered a deeper discussion of the merits of Bradbury's work, Elena found herself adding a piece to the puzzle that was Damon Salvatore.

She didn't think she could say that she understood him any better, but she knew more about him, and that was something to work with, at least.

Besides, anyone who shared her dislike of _The Catcher In The Rye_ had to have something going for them. It took a certain kind of person to dislike that book, and if he did, well... She was just going to have to figure him out.

* * *

**A/N: **

**I've written chapter five (an excerpt from which is posted on my Tumblr (unicornstarfighter)) and will be stockpiling that one for at least a few days until I've written another couple chapters, so here, have chapter four. **

**In some ways I feel like Damon is a bit too personable too soon (which will become more apparent in the next chapter, oops), but I have a plan to explain that, so I'm going to just keep going with it and see how things end up.**

**I hope you guys like this chapter, and thanks so much for all the feedback :)**

**Peace and love x**

**~AC**


	5. Chapter 5

For some reason, Elena always seemed to end up working the closing shift at The Beanery. She wouldn't complain about it, because it was always quiet and she could get other work done then, but when she was faced with a problem that she didn't seem to be able to solve, the quiet became unbearable. Instead of encouraging her to be productive and get something done, it became a painful reminder that she didn't have anything to work on, no matter how much she wished otherwise.

That was why she found herself playing solitaire on her laptop on a cold Tuesday evening in mid-December. The last customer that she'd seen had been in almost two hours beforehand as the tail end of the after-dinner crowd, and with snow beginning to cover the sidewalks, the number of people who'd walked past the coffee shop had amounted to exactly zero. Virginia winters weren't always bad, and because of that, when they were, nobody wanted to be outside. Fortunately, after the mess the previous weekend when Elena was coming home from Bonnie's, the town had taken precautions and started salting the streets before the snow hit, so her drive home wouldn't be too bad.

She moved the last ace onto the stack, and the "Winner!" graphic displayed on her screen. A moment later, her statistics popped up. She eyed the number of games played and groaned. It was hard to say, but she would guess that most people didn't play seventy-five games of solitaire on a Tuesday night, because most people actually had something to do with themselves.

She was once again silently cursing her writer's block when the bell above the door rang. Before she looked up, she told herself not to get her hopes up, since it was probably just Mrs. Oswald or someone similar. Still, she couldn't quite stop herself, and when she saw who had come into the coffee shop, it took everything in her to not grin like an idiot.

Damon brushed snow off of his hair and jacket, and wiped his boots on the doormat before he made his way over to the counter, his already-familiar crooked smile fixed on his face. Elena smiled at him, and he took off his coat before he sat down on one of the stools.

"Quiet night?" he asked.

She made a face. "I've played so many games of solitaire on my laptop that I'm pretty sure I'd be perfectly content to never look at a card again."

"Well, we can't have that," Damon said. "How are you meant to have an appreciation for poker if you can't stand playing cards?" She shrugged, and he chuckled. "I take it the residents of Mystic Falls don't like snow much."

She shook her head. "Winter isn't usually this bad. We're just painfully unlucky this year, and when that happens, people don't come out. They can make coffee at home, so it's not like they need to come here to get some, and we're usually sold out of pastries at this point so it's not like they'll really come in for dessert either." A moment later, she raised her eyebrows. "For that matter, you can make coffee at home. Why are you here?"

"I got bored," he said. "It's hard to believe, I know, but I don't lead the most exciting life anymore."

"Does that mean that you led an exciting life at one point?" she asked.

An odd expression came over his face for a moment before he smiled that crooked smile again. "You could say that, yeah."

"So why not lead it anymore?" she asked. "You'll have to excuse me for saying this if it's too forward, but it doesn't seem like there's much of a reason for you to be here. Why stay?"

His expression clouded again. "I needed to get away for a while." He gave a dry laugh a moment later. "And Mystic Falls is about as away as it gets."

"It's definitely a good vacation from the real world," Elena said. "At least until it becomes your real world, and then the real world is the best break you could ask for." They were both silent for a moment, and then she smiled. "Coffee?"

"I'm not in much of a rush, and it wouldn't be very gentlemanly of me to let you sit here all by yourself, so I can wait a while on that," Damon said.

She laughed. "Something tells me that you don't usually make a point of being a gentleman, but I appreciate the sentiment nonetheless."

He raised his eyebrows. "What makes you say that? I've been told I make a perfect gentleman many times."

She looked at him, and after a moment, the crooked smile reappeared. Once it did, she gestured to him. "That. Your smile says a lot of things, Damon, and one of them is that you don't really need to be a gentleman to get what you want."

"And what is it that I want?" Damon asked.

"I don't know," she said. "I don't know enough about you to be able to make a judgment on that. Ask me again in three months, if you're still here."

"Here as in Mystic Falls, or here as in this coffee shop?" he asked. When all she did was stare at him, he laughed. "I'll remember that. Besides, for all you know, I'm turning over a new leaf."

"That would make me ask why you would do that, but seeing as I don't know you that well, I'll refrain from making any further assumptions about you," Elena said. After a brief pause, she smiled slightly. "You know, in a lot of ways you remind me of Stefan, but you also don't. How does that work?"

His expression hardened when she said his brother's name. "What do you mean by that?"

She sighed. "You're both well-educated, obviously, and you can both have really intelligent conversations, but Stefan is this... I don't want to say that he's an open book, but he's readable, and pleasant, like the kind of guy that you'd want to take home to meet your parents. You're incredibly charismatic, and well-spoken, and you've got mystery to you. Stefan does too, but not in the same way. I don't know, it's hard to explain." She shook her head. "Forget I said anything."

He offered her a small smile, though it wasn't the close-mouthed, crooked one. "That might be the first time that someone has compared us without making me out to be the bad brother."

"I mean, for all I know, you are. Like I said, I don't know you that well," Elena said, though she smiled to let him know that she was joking, at least about the first part. "You two aren't close though, are you? Why?"

"That's a story for another time," Damon said, his expression unreadable.

"And by that, you mean that you don't want to talk about it," Elena said. "I get it. I won't push." She stood up from the stool that she had been sitting on. "I'm getting myself a coffee. I can get you one now, or you can wait until I'm done with mine, because I won't be getting up again until I'm finished with it."

"Coffee would be good, yeah," he said. "Decaf, though."

"So you'll be sleeping again tonight," Elena said as she picked up two mugs and turned to the coffee pots. "It's good to know that you're human." Her eyes lit up as she poured the coffee. "Oh, that could..." She shook her head a moment later. "And it's gone. Damn it."

When she turned around and passed Damon his mug, he had a puzzled expression on his face. "Did I miss something?"

"No, I did," she said as she settled herself on her stool again. "It's work stuff. Don't worry about it."

"What do you do, anyway?" Damon asked. "It seems like there's always work stuff going on with you. I've been here three weeks and I can already tell that you're caught up in 'work stuff' a lot. Does your job even have normal hours?"

"It doesn't," she said. "I work from home, mostly. As for what I do... That's a story for another time." She grinned when he made a face at her. "Don't give me the opportunity to use your words against you and it won't happen."

"You're not pushing me, so I'm not going to push you," Damon said. "Yet."

"Thanks," Elena said, rolling her eyes. She wrapped her hands around her mug and looked out the window. "I'm starting to wonder if it's ever going to stop snowing. This is ridiculous. It's not even Christmas yet."

Damon turned to glance out the window for a moment. When he turned back to face Elena, he chuckled. "This is nothing. I was in the Alps once in January, and let me tell you, that was snow."

Elena's brow furrowed. "You were in the Alps?"

He nodded. She lifted her mug to her lips as he began his story, her gaze locked on his face. He was animated as he talked, his hands moving constantly—Stefan had repeatedly told her that it was just an Italian thing, though she wasn't sure if it was that or a Salvatore thing—but Damon wasn't like that all the time. She'd only seen him genuinely interested in what was being said a few times since she'd first met him, even if he was the one talking.

As he continued, her thoughts wandered to the events of Saturday night. They'd talked about _Fahrenheit 451_ for the better part of twenty minutes, and then moved on to _1984_ and _Animal Farm_. By the time they'd finally finished their discussion, it was past eleven, and they'd gotten a lot closer than Elena had intended. She fought to keep the blush from rising to her cheeks as she thought about how she'd stopped in the middle of a sentence, their faces less than a foot away from each other, and made some excuse about how she wanted a brownie from the plate in the kitchen. At that point, he'd looked at the time and made a perfect pleasant comment about how he should probably be going, and she hadn't tried very hard to stop him.

She'd say it over and over again, but there was something about Damon Salvatore that she was dying to understand. It hadn't been a joke when she'd said that he reminded her of Stefan. She had shared more than one conversation like the one from Saturday night with the younger Salvatore when they were in high school, but they had always been on the opposite sides of the debate. He loved _Catcher_, and there had been something about _Mother Night_ that she'd actually liked while he despised it. Damon had been just as invested in the conversation as Stefan had always been, but his thoughts were different, more innovative, more—just _more_.

She chuckled internally as her gaze wandered over his face. It didn't take a genius to guess what Caroline would have said if they'd bumped into him in a bar in New York, or really, anywhere that wasn't Mystic Falls. Stefan's brother or not, Elena wasn't going to pretend that Damon wasn't gorgeous. The Salvatore brothers were both handsome, but Damon had something going for him. It might have been the dark clothes, or those eyes, but she could see why he wouldn't need to be a gentleman. She had always made a point of respecting everyone's choices, and she didn't believe in shaming those who didn't live their lives the way that she did, but she had no doubts that he'd probably shared his bed with a number of women over the years. In a lot of ways, she couldn't blame them for wanting to be with him. If they'd been anywhere else—_anyone _else—she probably would have done the same. She hadn't been with anyone since a couple drunken hookups her senior year of college instigated by Caroline's insistence that she needed to get out more, and with a face like his...

It wasn't until she heard someone calling her name that she realized she'd gotten lost in her thoughts. She shook her head to clear it and looked at Damon, a sheepish smile on her face.

"Sorry," she said. "I kind of... Sometimes I disappear into my head. I didn't mean to—"

"You're blushing," he said, an amused expression on his face. "What, was my story about being snowed into a ski lodge for four days really that awkward?"

"No," she said, shaking her head again. "Like I said, I was thinking, and I got a little bit off track. You were snowed in for four days?"

"Were you paying attention to anything I just said?" Damon asked.

That time she felt the blood rush to her cheeks, and she ducked her head to look at the counter. "Will you get mad at me if I say no?"

"I would if it weren't for the fact that I zone out a lot when people talk too," Damon said. She looked up at him and raised her eyebrows. "What? People are boring. They tell these stories about their lives like they think I care, and most of the time they really aren't interesting at all."

"Remind me to never tell you anything about myself, then," Elena said.

"I haven't done that with you," Damon said. "At least, not yet." She narrowed her eyes, and he chuckled. "I don't think it's going to happen though, don't worry." He looked at her, his gaze searching her face. "No, something tells me that I'm not going to be bored by anything that you have to say anytime soon."

Once again, she did her best to keep from blushing. "Oh? Why do you say that? I'm really not all that interesting after you spend enough time with me."

"If I've learned anything over our last few conversations, it's that you get to be a little bit more interesting every time I talk to you," Damon said. "I think you're safe."

"Well, in three months when you ask me what it is that I think that you want, I'll make sure to ask you if you've zoned out on me," Elena said. "Provided you're still here, of course."

"Much as I sometimes wish that I were anywhere else, I don't think that I'm going to be going anywhere for a while," Damon said. His expression clouded. "I have some things that I need to handle before I can even think about leaving."

"And I know that you're not going to tell me about them, so I'm not even going to ask," Elena said.

He smiled slightly at that. "And I thank you for it." She reached for the pot of coffee to pour herself another cup, and then lifted the pot in his direction. "Another cup would be great, thanks."

She poured the coffee and set the pot back in its place. "I swear I'm going to drink Bonnie out of house and home in terms of coffee one of these days. It's one of the perks of the job, free coffee, and it's safe to say that I take full advantage of it."

"I can't say I blame you," Damon said after he took a sip from his mug. "This stuff is delicious." He glanced at her. "When did you start working here?"

"Not long after I moved back to Mystic Falls," she said. "I'd been back here three weeks, had unpacked and reorganized my entire house four times, and was just about tearing my hair out due to boredom when Bonnie proposed that I come in and help her a few times a week, just so that I'd have something to do. I loved it, so I stayed."

"I suppose it's not a bad job, is it?" Damon asked. "Free coffee, a quiet place to work in the evenings..."

"Exactly," Elena said. "Bonnie almost always takes the morning shift on her own. I don't know why, since it's always absolutely insane in here for a few hours after we open, but she does it anyway. I mean, you saw how it was the first day you were in here."

He shook his head. "I have to say that I wasn't really paying much attention to the place. I'd only been in town for about two days and I was still sorting out the logistics, so I was in here taking full advantage of your free and surprisingly good wifi."

"You stayed at the inn when you got here, I presume?" Elena asked.

"Yeah," he said. "I could've gone up to the boarding house, since I have a key, but I wasn't in the mood to run into anyone unexpected."

She nodded. "I can understand that. I don't blame you for coming in here. The wifi at the inn is miserable."

"I'm glad to know I'm not crazy for thinking so," Damon said. "It was definitely a change from the hotels that I'm used to." His expression twisted for a moment. "All of this is a change from what I'm used to, really."

"You'll get used to everything here if you stay long enough," Elena said. "Well, if you stay long enough and you make some friends." He glanced at her and she smiled. "You've already got one, so you're on your way."

"Are we friends, or just convenient acquaintances?" he asked.

"I'd say that we're friends, but in an effort to keep you from making the argument that we aren't, allow me to put a stop to it before it can really even start," Elena said. "Are you busy tomorrow?"

He looked at her, an unamused expression on his face. "I just moved here and I told you that I've been bored. What do you think?"

"Well, that's good, because you're going to come over to my house for lunch at one," Elena said. "No questions, no refusals. I'm not giving you a choice in the matter, and I'll have you know that I make a damn good panini, so it'll be worth your while."

"Noted," he said. "What, will having lunch make us friends?"

"In this town, yeah," she said. "That's just how things work."

"It seems I have a lot to learn," he said.

"You'll get it eventually," she said. "I'll help you." She glanced at the clock. "I should probably straighten things up in here. We close in half an hour, and I try to make sure it's all set to go so that Bonnie doesn't have to worry about getting everything ready when she comes in the morning."

"Want some help?" he asked. Elena raised her eyebrows. "It's not like I'm doing anything. Just tell me what to do."

"Go around and make sure all the chairs are pushed in while I sweep, if you wouldn't mind," Elena said after a moment. "I know they'll just get messed up again when people come in tomorrow, but the whole place just looks better if everything is neat."

He nodded and stood as she went to fetch the broom and dustpan.

They were quiet as they made their way around the coffee shop. Elena had shut off the radio over an hour before Damon had come in, as the music only served to remind her that she should have been writing, which was a thought that she just didn't need to have. The silence wasn't much better either, but she was starting to realize that she couldn't win either way, so it didn't really matter. The best way for her to not think about the fact that she had absolutely nothing to work with was to talk to someone, and her options had been seriously limited until Damon had joined her.

She blushed again as her mind flashed to the thoughts that she'd been having earlier. It wasn't something that she should have been thinking about. She barely knew him, which was bad enough, but he was also Stefan's brother, and given that her first real experiences of any kind had been with Stefan... It would just be weird, and again, she barely knew him.

She wanted to, though. The more time she spent with him, the more that she came to realize that there was a lot to be learned about him, and a lot to be valued too. They hadn't talked about anything serious, and there were clearly some subjects that he was touchy about, but she had her share of those too. She didn't know what he would say if she told him about the events of her past, and in some ways, she wasn't sure that she wanted to. It was easy, the friendship they were slipping into, and anything heavy could ruin that without a moment's notice. It was too risky.

With that thought, she finished sweeping and tossed the contents of the dustpan into the trash. Damon sat down again as she grabbed a rag and wiped down the counter. He lifted up their mugs when she reached him, and once she tossed the rag into the dish tub that held the laundry, he handed her mug back to her.

She murmured a quiet thank-you and wrapped her hands around it once more. It was still warm, but barely, and she drained the last of the coffee from it before she put it in the dishwasher.

"Thank you for coming in, and for helping," she said after a moment. "It gets a bit... maddening in here when I'm by myself for too long. When I actually have work to do, it's fine, but when I'm alone with my thoughts, it doesn't end well."

"I can understand that, and it's no problem," he said, the crooked smile making its way onto his face. "I know I'm good company."

"You're full of it, that's what you are," Elena said. "Seriously, has anyone ever knocked your ego, or have you always been this self-assured?"

He was quiet for a moment, though the smile remained fixed on his face. "I've been this way for a long time. It's part of the package."

"I guess I'm just going to have to get used to it, then," Elena said. She looked at the clock once more. "Oh, nobody's going to come in here in the next fifteen minutes. I'll just close up early. I could do with a long bath and a good book, and I'm sure you'd like to get back to whatever it is you'd normally do on a Tuesday night."

He chuckled dryly as he stood up and grabbed his coat. "I'm not sure if I really have a definition of a normal thing to do on a Tuesday night, but I appreciate your concern."

She untied her apron as he pulled a bill out of his pocket and slid it across the counter. After a moment of staring at it, she shook her head and shoved it back in his direction. "Keep it. The coffee's on the house tonight since you were kind enough to stay here and keep me from going insane."

"I guess I'll just have to come back here when it's empty more often if I'm going to be getting free coffee out of the deal," he said.

"No promises as to the regularity of that," she said. "I'm feeling generous tonight." The bell above the door rang, and she made a face before she turned to see who it was. "Do you know what time it—oh, hey Caroline."

"Hey, Elena," Caroline said as she reached the counter. Her eyes widened almost imperceptibly when she looked at Elena's companion. "Hi, Damon."

"Caroline," he said, his voice cool. He looked at Elena, and when he spoke, his voice was warm again. "See you tomorrow, then? One o'clock?"

She nodded. "One o'clock. Thanks again."

"It's no problem," he said. He made his way to the door, where he lifted his hand in a gesture of farewell that was only directed at Elena before letting himself out.

The ringing of the bell faded before Caroline spoke. "Damon? What was he doing in here? And what's this about tomorrow?"

"He came in a while ago," Elena said. "It was empty in here, and he stayed to keep me company. As for tomorrow, I invited him over for lunch."

Caroline's eyes widened. "He did what?" Elena shrugged, and Caroline shook her head. "No, Elena. He's interested in you."

"I don't think so," Elena said. "He doesn't have a lot of friends here, Care. I just talk to him, that's all. He's... Nice. Mostly. He's definitely a bit cocky, and we all know there are some family issues which I'm sure exist for a reason, but we've had some interesting conversations. He doesn't like _The Catcher In The Rye _either, can you believe that?"

"You had to find someone who shared your taste in books eventually, El, and I'm not sure if that automatically qualifies them as a great person," Caroline said. "Just pay attention, would you? I don't know why he's here, and Stefan won't say anything, but I heard some of the stories before. He's a ladies' man, and I don't see him sticking around for long."

"I'm trying to make a point of not judging him too quickly," Elena said. "That's the whole reason I invited him over tomorrow. I can't exactly paint a picture of him as a person if I don't know him. I remember the comments Stefan made in high school as well as you do, Care, but I don't think they're the whole story. I'm going to give him a chance to tell me his side of things before I over-think everything."

"Be careful," Caroline said. "I don't want to see you get hurt." She smiled sheepishly a moment later. "But call me after he leaves, I want details."

Elena laughed. "Cautionary tales or not, you're still Caroline. Don't worry, I'll give you and Bonnie the full scoop." She shrugged. "He's the first interesting thing that's happened here in a long time. Sue me for being curious."

"We're all just as curious as you are," Caroline said. "The only difference is that you're the only one that he's shown an interest in." Elena didn't say anything, and Caroline looked around the empty coffee shop. "You're closing up early, then?"

"That's the plan," Elena said. "Unless you want a coffee."

Caroline shook her head. "I'm good. I just saw that you were still here, and I wanted to stop in and say hi. I'm glad I did, because who knows how long it would've taken you to tell us that you're having lunch with the more mysterious Salvatore brother."

"I promise I'll give you all the details tomorrow," Elena said. "Now, Care, I love you, but please go so that I can close up."

"Fine, I know where I'm not wanted," Caroline said. She grinned and paused just inside the door. "Call me!"

"I will," Elena said.

With that, Caroline left, and Elena sighed.

There was no keeping secrets from Caroline Forbes, not easily. That was something she'd known for a long time.

* * *

**A/N:**

**You guys might be legitimately crazy for the number of reviews and things that I've gotten, but it just makes me want to keep writing, so keep it up. Thank you so much for all of your feedback and the compliments. They give me something to keep at the back of my mind when my fellow writing students are criticizing things that are just part of my writing style in class—I write for you guys, not for them, so your feedback is the important thing. **

**I've written through chapter seven and I'm going to start chapter eight once this is posted (so I'll be working on it when you're reading this). I don't think there's really going to be much of an upload schedule, so you guys can continue to be surprised whenever I post a new chapter, especially given that I go back to uni to finish my semester on Monday. Only another six weeks... (yes, we end freakishly early, I know)**

**I love the D/E dynamic that I'm building in this story. It makes me sad when I look at the show and see how weird things are getting this season, but a big part of me just wants to attribute the weirdness to the past history of the actors and their current situations (you can bet that I RPS and routinely suffer emotional trauma because of it. I hate myself sometimes). I'm trying to console myself by writing this, mostly. Gotta love fanfiction for fixing all of those painful moments in canon.**

**I'll post chapter six relatively soon, I'm sure, but until then, you have five chapters of ridiculousness (this thing is plotted to be twenty-nine chapters long, so unless I decide to change something, that's what you'll be getting).**

**Peace and love x**


	6. Chapter 6

On Wednesday morning, rather than staying in bed until she couldn't anymore, Elena was up and tidying her house before ten o'clock. She probably shouldn't have been awake, as she'd been up much later than she'd intended the previous night stewing over her writer's block and Caroline's warnings, but she was, so cleaning seemed to be as good a way to spend the time as any. The house wasn't really a mess, since it was a big place and she was only one person, but there was enough scattered around for her to deem clean-up necessary before Damon arrived. There was something about him that told her that he wasn't a big fan of clutter and disorganization—maybe it was the way that his hair was always perfectly mussed in a way that implied careful consideration rather than a lack of any desire to use a comb—and while he'd come in for coffee the night that he'd driven her home, that had been the day after one of her cleaning sprees, so she didn't want to ruin that image by leaving her house in its present state of casual disarray.

She hummed along to the song she had playing through her stereo system as she shelved books in the living room. Since she was little, she hadn't been able to help leaving books all over the place, and on a normal day, it wasn't unusual to find books stacked on the counter in the kitchen, on the back of the toilet in the bathroom, on end tables in the living room, and a number of other places besides. Most of her cleaning usually just consisted of putting them away once a week, and maybe a bit of dusting or vacuuming as well. The house never really got messy enough to warrant more than that, but she would still move everything every few months to wash the walls and the floor. Her mother had always kept the house in a state of perfect organization, and while she wasn't quite that concerned about it, she still did her best to uphold some sort of a standard.

Her phone rang as she put the last book onto its shelf, and she answered the call after glancing at the screen. "Hey Jer."

"Hey sis," he said.

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" she asked. "Are you finally going to tell me when you're going to come home?"

He chuckled. "I'm afraid not. You're just going to have to anguish over that one a while longer. No, I was just calling to see what's up at home."

"Not much," she said. She walked over to the couch and sat down, propping her feet up on the coffee table as she did. "It's been pretty quiet around here for the most part."

"Really?" he asked. "So was Bonnie lying when she told me about Stefan's brother coming back to town, or..."

Elena laughed and shook her head, only to remember that Jeremy couldn't see her. "No, she wasn't lying about that. He's been back for a little less than a month. I can't say I'm surprised that she told you. She was probably dying to talk to someone about him."

"She said that the two of you have been spending a lot of time together," Jeremy said.

"I don't know if I'd say that it's a lot," Elena said. "He's come into The Beanery while I was working a couple times and kept me company since it was empty, and he drove me home last weekend when he caught me walking out in a snowstorm, but we've really only talked a few times." She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. "He's interesting."

"So I hear," Jeremy said. "Is he much like Stefan?"

"They have their similarities, but there are a lot more differences," Elena said. She grinned a moment later. "But guess what? I'm not the only one who doesn't like _Catcher_ anymore, so I guess I'm not as crazy as you always said I was."

Jeremy groaned. "Really? No, you're still crazy, there's just two of you now. I don't know, I don't think I'm going to be able to like this guy if he doesn't like _Catcher_."

"You still like me, and I don't like it," Elena said.

"Yeah, but you're my sister," Jeremy said. "I have an obligation there."

"So you only like me because we're related?" Elena asked. "Thanks, Jer. That really makes me feel wonderful."

She could practically see him roll his eyes before he spoke again. "You know that's not it, but whatever works, El." He sighed. "I need to go, a bunch of us from the program are supposed to go look at an exhibit in this art gallery. I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

"If you don't come home for Christmas, I'll kill you, Jeremy Gilbert," Elena said. "Have fun at your art gallery."

"I'll try, and noted," Jeremy said. "Later, El."

She nodded. "Later."

The call ended a moment later, and she looked at the blank screen of her phone for brief instant before she stood up and put it back in her pocket.

It took her another half an hour to dust and vacuum, at which point she elected to watch some television. She was still short on ideas, so there wasn't any reason to sit in front of her laptop and torture herself with the blank document, and going for a run would require braving the cold and showering before Damon arrived, which wasn't a challenge she felt like pursuing. No, television was a safe bet, and besides, she was behind on every show she'd been watching. It wouldn't hurt to catch up a little bit.

She finished two episodes of one of her favorite shows by half past twelve, and was at a loss for what to do until a song that she, Bonnie, and Caroline had loved in high school came on the radio. The song wasn't very good in terms of its musicality, but it was catchy, and they'd always had a ridiculous dance party in whoever's room they were in when it came on. As a result, Elena got up off the couch and danced.

An equally catchy song came on when the first one ended, and she continued to dance. In fact, she was still dancing when the doorbell rang. She froze, raced to shut off the radio, and was perfectly poised when she opened the door a minute later.

"Having fun in there?" Damon said, a cheeky smile on his face. "That looked like quite the dance party."

She could feel her cheeks redden. "Oh, shut up and come inside."

"Is that really the best way to greet your guest?" Damon asked as he walked past her.

"After that guest just saw me dancing like I haven't since I was in high school and insisted on bringing it up, yes," Elena said. She shut the door and led him down the hall to the kitchen, where she gestured for him to sit down at the island after she took a seat herself. "You're early."

"I try to be," he said as he sat down beside her. "People can say what they want about me, but they can't deny the fact that I appreciate punctuality."

"You and me both," Elena said. "I hate those people who show up twenty minutes late and think that it's perfectly acceptable. When I say that I want to meet somewhere at two, I mean I want to meet there at two, and if you're a few minutes early, that's even better. I don't mean that I want to sit around and wait for half an hour because you couldn't be assed to leave on time."

"Exactly," Damon said. "We made plans, and that means that I expect that we'll do things when we say we will." He chuckled a moment later, and Elena raised her eyebrows. "I was just thinking that you must've been fun when you were in high school, if that little dance of yours was anything to go off of."

Elena smiled weakly. "I was fun once." Her smile faded. "Then I grew up."

It was true. She'd been a model student her first two years of high school, with perfect grades and plenty of leadership positions to put down on college applications. Along with that, she'd also been very social, and had spent many weekends at parties with her friends. Before she turned sixteen, it had all been fun and games and doing her best to live up to the family name. After that, well...

Damon nodded slowly. "I can understand that." His mouth twisted into a wry smile. "It happens to the best of us."

"Are you trying to imply that you're the best of us?" Elena asked. "Because if you are, I think you might be stretching everything a little bit. Some of us are pretty great."

"There's pretty great, and then there's being the best," Damon said. "I don't know if the two are quite the same thing."

"They are in my world, and that's all that matters," Elena said. She stood up and crossed the room to the refrigerator. "What do you want on your panini? I have pretty much anything you can think of, but I happen to think that ham and cheese with a bit of tomato is the way to go."

"That sounds great," Damon said. "You're saving me from having to cook for myself, so I'll eat pretty much anything that you decide to make."

"I'll keep that in mind," Elena said. She got the ingredients that she needed from the refrigerator and fetched the loaf of bread from the counter, and then carried everything over to the island so that she could keep talking to Damon while she prepared the paninis. "You don't have to answer this, but what was it like growing up in Mystic Falls before you left? And how much older are you than Stefan?"

A shadow passed over Damon's face for a moment before he smiled slightly. "I'm seven years older."

"You're... thirty-two, then?" Elena asked. "I guess Stefan really is the baby brother, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he is," Damon said. "And if you want to get technical, I'm six and a half years older than he is. My birthday isn't until June."

She paused halfway through cutting a slice of bread. "Mine too. The twenty-second."

"Mine's the eighteenth," Damon said. "Coincidence is a powerful thing. As for what growing up here was like..." He seemed to be struggling with something for a moment before he relaxed. "It was surprisingly good, given that Mystic Falls is, well, Mystic Falls. We lived in the old boarding house, actually, which feels a lot smaller when you have a couple of rambunctious boys running around the place. Stefan was a right pain in the ass when he was little—still is, actually—and since I was older, I was on babysitting duty a lot. I mean, we were never really left on our own during the time that we lived here, but I was always the one who had to look out for him, even though he was so tiny he couldn't really get up to much."

"When did you guys move?" Elena asked.

An indecipherable expression came onto his face. "When I was nine."

He didn't seem to want to say much more than that, and she didn't push him. She recognized the look in his eyes, even if she didn't recognize the rest of the emotions playing across his face, and she wasn't going to push him when he clearly didn't want to talk about it. That look had appeared on her face more than enough times, and on Jeremy's too, and she knew how frustrating it was to have people push even when it was clear that they shouldn't. No, whatever it was that had caused the Salvatore family to leave Mystic Falls was something that Damon could tell her when he was ready. She knew that his mother had passed away a while ago, thanks to Stefan, but she didn't know when it had happened, and she didn't want to assume anything either. For all she knew, their father had moved the family because he'd gotten a fantastic job opportunity somewhere else.

It was easy for her to imagine a young Damon, though, and she tried to keep herself from smiling at the image that appeared in her mind. She would bet that he had been all knobby knees and messy hair when he was little, and that he probably hadn't grown into himself until he was in his mid teens, if not later. That was one of those things about being a writer—she could picture people's pasts, even when she didn't have much to go off of, because she was always designing them for characters that were usually caught in a relatively stable part of their life, at least in terms of appearances. Making up the childhoods of her characters was one of her favorite parts of writing, even if none of the information ever really made its way into the story. It was always a useful tool for getting to know who she was working with, and it was one that she'd made use of more than once over the years.

She wrinkled her nose at that thought. Coming up with pasts for the people that she knew before she knew the real details was all well and good, but she really should have been coming up with the stories of fictional characters instead. Nothing seemed to be changing, though. No matter what she read or who she talked to, she couldn't seem to have a new idea, and it was going to be the end of her career if she wasn't careful. Sure, she could find another publishing house if she was dropped from the one that she had her contract with, but it would be hard, especially if she was let go for breaking her contract.

The sound of Damon calling her name made her shake her head. He laughed when she looked at him.

"Lost in your thoughts again, I take it?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. She put the paninis together and carried them to her panini press, which sat in the corner on the kitchen counter. "It happens more often than I'd like, as you might be able to tell. I'm sorry if I missed anything."

"You seemed pretty intent on whatever it was that you were thinking about, so I didn't bother trying to say anything until you started making ridiculous faces," Damon said. "Something bothering you?"

"The usual," she said.

"Work stuff?" he asked. She nodded, and he grinned. "Are you ever going to tell me what that means, or do I get to keep coming up with ideas that are probably entirely wrong?"

"I'll let you be creative for a while," she said. "I'll tell you eventually, I'm sure, but for now, I'm not going to stop you from letting your mind run wild."

"I don't know if letting my mind run wild is the best choice, but if you think that you're okay with it, then I'll be sure to let my thoughts continue on their wayward trail," Damon said. He shifted in his seat. "Now, I told you about my childhood, even if it wasn't much, so it's your turn to share."

"What do you want to know?" Elena asked. "I can't promise full disclosure yet. We may be friends, but there are some things that can't be shared until a certain level of intimacy has been reached."

He grinned wickedly. "Intimacy? I'm good with that." She rolled her eyes, and his smile widened for a moment before his expression sobered. "What made you come back to Mystic Falls after college?"

She'd been expecting him to ask her something about her childhood, or something similar, and the question made her pause. After a few moments of thought, she shook her head. "We're not there quite yet. Let's just say that there were some things that I needed to handle, so I came back here, and I stayed."

"So we've both got things that we don't want to share, then," Damon said. "Fair enough." He stood up. "Do you want coffee? I think I remember where you got everything the other night."

She bit her lip, only to smile a moment later. "That would be great, yeah. Thanks, Damon."

"You're making me lunch, it's only fair that I make you coffee," he said as he filled the kettle and turned it on. "Besides, after the number of cups you've poured for me, I'm pretty sure I could make you coffee every day until Christmas and I still probably wouldn't break even."

"You haven't had that much the last couple of times you've come into The Beanery, and Bonnie was the one who kept up with the refills the first day you were in there, so I'm pretty sure you'll only owe me about four cups after this one," Elena said. "And it's not like you need to pay me back for that. It's my job."

"Pouring coffee might be your job, but having conversations with the stranger who walked in probably isn't," Damon said. "What made you talk to me, anyway?"

"I was bored, and you were there," she said. "And you're good with banter. Most people around here aren't, and of the ones that are, the likelihood of them wandering into the shop when I'm in there by myself is pretty small, so I have to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves to me."

"So I'm just an opportunity to be taken advantage of?" he asked.

She opened the panini press and plated the sandwiches. "Only if you want to think of yourself that way." The water in the kettle began to boil, and she waited until he poured it into the French press to hand him his plate. "We can eat in here, or the dining room, or the living room, or anywhere, really. I don't care all that much."

"Let's just stay in here," he said. "Your kitchen is nice."

She nodded as they sat down at the island. "It's one of my favorite rooms in the house, honestly. It ranks right up there with my office. The lighting in here is great, and I have the supplies to cook basically anything that I can think of, so I can stay in here all day if I'm not careful. It's happened once or twice. Actually, it'll probably happen again in about a week."

"Why is that?" he asked.

"We're having Christmas here this year, so I'm going to be cooking most of the day," Elena said. She paused with her sandwich halfway to her mouth. "Wait, what are you doing for Christmas if Stefan is coming here?"

"Nothing," he said with a shrug. He wouldn't look at her, though. "I'll make myself dinner and amuse myself like I would on any other night, probably."

She shook her head. "No, you don't get to do that. It's Christmas, and Christmas means time with friends if you won't spend it with family. Come here." He still wouldn't look at her, and she sighed. "Look, I know there's something going on with you and Stefan, but you can't spend Christmas alone. You don't even have to talk to him if you don't want to." Damon glanced at her, and she smiled slightly. "Come for me, if nothing else?"

"Now that's just unfair," he said. Her brow furrowed, and he gestured in her direction. "That expression. Elena, you could convince someone to commit murder if you looked at them with that face."

"So you'll come, then?" she asked.

He sighed. "Yeah, I'll come."

"Good," she said. "It's going to be fun. I think you'll like Bonnie and Caroline once you actually talk to them." She sighed a moment later. "I'd say that I think you'll like Jeremy too, but I still don't know if he's going to be home, so you might not be meeting my brother until another time."

"Should I be worried?" Damon asked. She tilted her head in confusion. "Will he go into protective brother mode and spend three hours trying to judge whether or not I'm good enough to be friends with you?"

"Probably not, but if he does, I'll kick his ass," Elena said. "I've made it very clear that I won't get involved in his relationships if he doesn't get involved in mine." Damon looked at her blankly, and she laughed. "I forgot, you don't know that stuff. Bonnie and Jer are dating, and they have been for a while. They were really weird about it when it started because they thought I was going to think it was messed up since he's my little brother and she's my best friend." The smile on her face faded a moment later. "Actually, Stefan and Caroline were the same way, but that was for a different reason."

"Which would be what exactly?" Damon asked.

Elena blushed. "Before I say this, just be aware that it's completely over and has been for a really long time, but your brother and I dated each other for about two years in high school." Damon's eyes narrowed, and she bit her lip. "We ended it before we went to college because there just wasn't anything there anymore. He's a great friend, but he and Caroline are way better for each other than the two of us ever were."

"What, Saint Stefan isn't good enough for you?" Damon asked. He chuckled dryly. "I never thought I'd see the day."

"Stefan's plenty good," Elena said. "He's just..." She took a bite from her panini and chewed as she thought about what to say next. "Stefan is very safe, and for Caroline, that's good, because she can get a bit ahead of herself at times and she needs somebody who's grounded to balance her out."

"But safe isn't good for you?" Damon asked.

Elena shrugged. "Safe isn't bad, per se, but like I said, I grew up. I'm not really all that reckless anymore, and I don't do anything without thinking about it a few hundred times first. If I were still with Stefan, or someone like him, it would be the safest, most boring relationship in the entire world, because neither of us would ever do anything exciting. I've said it a million times that I like it when things are quiet, and I'm not lying, but I also know that if and when I end up seriously involved with someone, I'm going to need them to be spontaneous, because I'm not really any good at that anymore."

"I can see how that would be a problem," Damon said. "Any idea when you're going to find that person?"

She laughed. "Damon, I haven't left Mystic Falls since I moved back here. Caroline has plans for all of us to go to Europe this summer, but I don't really have any intention of falling in love with some handsome foreign stranger and dropping everything to be with him, so that's out, and Mystic Falls isn't exactly full of the most exciting people ever." She shook her head. "No, I'm just waiting to see what happens. It'll all come together eventually, and if it doesn't, I can always buy six cats and be done with it."

Damon chuckled, and she glanced at him. He had a smile on his face. "I'm just trying to picture you as a crazy cat lady, and I don't think I can do it. It's not in your future."

"Who's to say what's in my future?" she asked. "I can picture it, but then again, I can also picture a lot of things, so maybe that isn't saying much." She took another bite from her sandwich and made a face once she swallowed. "Well, I can picture a lot of things, except for when I need to, and I guess that's my whole problem."

"Let me guess, that remark has to do with your 'work stuff,'" Damon said. "Well, I guess I should cross anything non-creative off my list of ideas."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually," Elena said. "And if you don't, well, I'll end up telling you at some point. Just don't hold out too much hope for when that'll be, because you not knowing about it means that you can't ask me stupid questions the way that everyone else does."

"I'll just have to make sure to remind myself not to ask you stupid questions once you tell me," Damon said. His expression clouded. "I know what it's like to have people ask you questions about things that you don't really have any control over, so I can empathize with you on that one."

"Some people just can't take a hint," Elena said. She smiled after a moment. "Enough about that, though. Do you want to stay and watch a movie or something when we're done eating? I'm going to go back to driving myself crazy about work once you leave, and I'd like to put that off as long as possible, so..."

He smiled. "I cleared my schedule like you said, so I don't have any plans. That sounds great."

Sure enough, when they were finished eating, Damon poured each of them a cup of coffee and they went into the living room. Elena let him pick a movie from the DVDs that she had stored on the shelves below her television, and she settled herself on the couch once it began to play. Her eyelids began to grow heavy, despite the cup of coffee, and eventually, she drifted off to sleep.

She woke up to a dark and empty living room. There was a blanket over her that hadn't been there before, and she blinked slowly, only to sit up when she remembered what had been happening when she fell asleep.

As she looked around the room frantically in an attempt to figure out what had happened to her guest, her gaze landed on a piece of paper on the coffee table. She picked it up and switched on one of the lamps so that she could read it.

_Elena,_

_You fell asleep during the movie, and I didn't want to wake you up because you looked exhausted, so I put the mugs in your dishwasher and let myself out. _

_Call me if you need anything, and if you don't, I'll see you on Christmas._

_-Damon_

His phone number was scrawled on the bottom of the page, and she stared at it for a moment before she smiled.

No, something told her that she wasn't going to be calling Caroline that night. The day's events were hers and Damon's to enjoy, and nobody else's, and she was going to keep it that way, promises be damned.

* * *

**A/N:**

**I wasn't going to update this soon but then I got my midterm emailed back from my writing professor and let's just say that it wasn't pretty (I really don't know what she was expecting from a first draft, especially after she told us not to do anything more than proof-read and check for continuity in character names and stuff. She should be thanking me since I actually know how to format unlike ninety percent of the people in my class) so you guys get to have another chapter because your kind words remind me of why I made this my major in the first place when it's not something that I take to naturally (I am a math person, not a writer. Any writing skill I have is the result of a lot of work, not natural talent).**

**Apparently my characterization is flat and my dialogue is unrealistic. I'm more inclined to say that she just hasn't spent a lot of time around teenagers who went to the kind of high school that I went to, because we all talked like my characters did when we were seventeen. I'm not supposed to explain myself though, so I'm not really sure how that's going to work out when we workshop my story. I have a month until final drafts are due, so I will be rewriting and revising and rewriting and revising some more. Obviously, I have things that I need to fix since it was a first draft, and I knew that when I turned it in, but some of the things she said were totally uncalled for and I'm so not looking forward to class tomorrow.**

**In other news, I'm almost done with chapter nine, at which point I'll have written approximately 50,000 words since March 1st. This might be a 100k word month, we'll see. Six weeks until the end of the semester. Six more weeks. I can do this.**

**Until next time, friends (which will probably be tomorrow or Tuesday or whenever I finish chapter ten hahaha. The next chapter is Christmas!). Thanks for being awesome. **

**Peace and love x**

**~AC**


	7. Chapter 7

True to what she said to Damon, Elena was busy in the kitchen in the afternoon on Christmas. Bonnie sat at the island chopping up vegetables for a salad, and Stefan was working peeling potatoes and cutting them up into chunks so that they could be cooked and mashed later, while Elena checked the turkey in the oven. Caroline had been relegated to cookie-icing duty, as she could be trusted to do that without producing something inedible. In reality, her cooking skills weren't as bad as they all made them out to be, but she wasn't as good a chef as the rest of them and she was also perfectly content to let them do the work on the meals, so it worked out nicely. They'd all been at the house since earlier in the morning, as they did a gift exchange together since most of them didn't have a lot of family, especially in the area.

Elena closed the oven and turned around. "It's going to be another half an hour, probably. You guys go ahead and hang out in the living room. I'll finish all of this."

"Are you sure?" Stefan asked. She nodded, and something in her expression seemed to tell him that she didn't want to be argued with. "Come on, Care."

The pair of them left, while Bonnie paused on her way out of the room. "Are you okay?"

Elena had moved to the island to finish cutting up the potatoes, and she glanced at Bonnie. "Yeah, fine."

"Is this about Jer?" Bonnie asked.

Elena kept her gaze trained on the cutting board. "I was just hoping that he'd be home, that's all. I haven't seen him since the summer, and talking to him on the phone is all well and good, but it's not the same." She looked up at Bonnie and smiled slightly, her eyes sad. "Go be with Stefan and Caroline. I'll be fine. I just need a few minutes."

Bonnie looked at her for a moment and then nodded. "Let me know if you need anything, El."

Elena nodded once, and Bonnie smiled at her before leaving the kitchen. As she chopped the potatoes, Elena could hear bits of conversation drifting in from the living room. The brief phrases that she caught were coupled with the Christmas music playing over her speakers, and the noise was a nice soundtrack for the atmosphere in the house. It was quiet without being silent, and Elena hummed along to "White Christmas" as it played, her mind settling despite the hole left by Jeremy's absence.

After a few minutes, the doorbell rang, and a smile spread across Elena's face despite her attempts to stop it. She set down her knife and made her way out of the kitchen to the front door. When she opened it, she saw Damon standing there, snowflakes dusted in his dark hair and across the shoulders of his coat.

"You actually came," she said as she stepped aside to let him enter the house.

"I said I would, didn't I?" he asked. He took off his coat and opened the coat closet to get a hanger. "How many times did I tell you that I'd be here over the last week?"

"Plenty, but I still wasn't sure if you'd chicken out or not," Elena said. "Everyone's in the living room, if you want to join them, or you can hang out in the kitchen with me."

"They're making you do all the cooking?" Damon asked. "Assholes."

Elena laughed and shook her head. "No, they were helping until I kicked them out." The smile faded from her face. "I needed a few minutes to get over the fact that my brother couldn't be bothered to come home for Christmas."

Damon was quiet as he reached out to rest his hand on her shoulder for a moment in a comforting gesture. She smiled once more. Just as they started walking, Bonnie came into the hallway. She stopped abruptly when she saw who Elena was with, her eyes widening. Elena sighed internally and turned to Damon.

"Go ahead to the kitchen, I'll be there in a second," she said.

He nodded, and after a quick glance at Bonnie, made his way down the hall and disappeared into the kitchen. Once he was gone, Bonnie looked at Elena.

"What's he doing here?" Bonnie asked.

"I invited him," Elena said. Bonnie stared at her, and Elena sighed. "He was going to spend Christmas by himself, and I didn't want to let him do that. I know that he and Stefan have issues, and I know that all that you and Care know about Damon is what Stefan has said about him, but he's not as bad as you think. He's not bad at all, really. Just give him a chance, please."

Bonnie seemed to be searching Elena's face for something, and she nodded after a moment. "You're lucky that I'm the one who came out here instead of Caroline. I'll tell her and Stefan, but don't be surprised if this whole thing blows up in your face."

"It's my house, and if anyone is nasty to him, they can leave," Elena said. "I'm his only friend here, and I'm not going to let that happen."

"Okay," Bonnie said after a brief pause. "I'll make that clear to them."

"Thank you," Elena said. "Seriously, Bon, I think you guys will like him if you can just get over the stories that you've heard. He's got his moments, but he's pretty great."

"I'll keep that in mind," Bonnie said. A moment later, she smiled. "You should probably go join him before he thinks that I abducted you or something."

"Yeah, probably," Elena said, grinning. "I'll let you guys know when dinner is ready."

Bonnie went back into the living room as Elena made her way down the hall to the kitchen. It wasn't long before she heard the conversation in the living room increase in volume, and she winced.

Damon was watching her, and when he spoke, his expression was unreadable. "If my presence is going to cause problems, I can leave."

Elena shook her head. "You're not going anywhere. They'll get over it, and anyway, like I said to Bonnie, it's my house. If they want to stay, they're going to mind their manners." He was still looking at her with that indecipherable expression on his face, and she smiled. "I don't really care what they say, Damon. I want you here, and since it's my house, that's the only important thing." He didn't seem to have anything to say to that, and she resumed chopping potatoes before she said anything else. "I know I texted you about it already, but thanks again for what you did on Wednesday. I was up really late on Tuesday night and I didn't mean to fall asleep on you."

He smiled at that. "It's okay. Besides, you're cute when you sleep."

Her eyes widened, and she quickly turned her gaze back to the cutting board. "Nobody's ever said that to me before, but thanks, I guess."

"Anytime," he said. "Now tell me what I can do to help so that I'm not just standing here like an idiot."

"I don't know if I'd say that you're standing there like an idiot, but if you want to wash the beans, they're in the refrigerator," she said. "And the bread needs to be sliced up and put in the bread basket."

"I'm on it," he said. A moment later, he laughed. She turned around to see him staring at the area of the refrigerator side that was exposed above the counter. "How did I not see this before?"

She looked at it and smiled. The side of the refrigerator was covered in magnetic picture frames, each one loaded with pictures of Elena and Jeremy at various stages of their development, their parents, or other family members. Her mom had kept the display up, and Elena hadn't changed it since she moved home, so there were plenty of pictures of her when she was quite young. Her favorite was a picture taken by her aunt when she was only seven, which displayed Elena and Jeremy throwing leaves up into the air while their parents looked on. Her smile widened when her gaze turned to it, and when she looked at Damon a moment later, he had a broad grin on his face.

"You were adorable," he said. "Wow."

She reached out to shove his shoulder, attempting to fix a stern expression on her face. When she failed miserably, she began to laugh. "Make yourself useful and clean the damn beans instead of gawking at pictures of me when I was still sweet and innocent."

He muttered something under his breath, and when she raised her eyebrows, he grinned at her. "Don't worry about it. I've got it covered."

"Yeah, I'm sure you do," she said as she turned back to her cutting board.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"Whatever you want it to mean," she said.

For a while, the only sounds in the kitchen was the water running in the sink, the occasional thud of Elena's knife as it met the cutting board, the radio, and the conversation drifting in from the living room. Eventually, Damon started to regale Elena with a story about Christmas when he was five, and when Bonnie, Caroline, and Stefan entered the kitchen, Elena was laughing and Damon had a smile on his face. His face closed off when they walked in, and Elena's laughter quieted as she looked at her friends.

"Everything okay?" Elena asked.

"Fine, we just got bored in the living room and decided to come back in here," Bonnie said. "It's nice to see you again, Damon."

His voice was even as he responded. "You too." He picked up the loaf of bread and the basket that sat beside them and carried them over next to Elena.

"I guess I'm going to finish icing the cookies, then," Caroline said as she sat down at the island. Elena looked at her and she shrugged. "What? It needs to be done before dinner, and the two of you are busy, so..."

"You're lucky that you've got Damon helping you, Elena," Stefan said. "He's a better cook than I am."

Elena's eyes widened, and she turned to look at Damon, who had begun to slide the bread and place the pieces into the fabric-lined basket. "You cook?"

"Had to," he said. "I've been on my own for a while, and I used to help my mom out in the kitchen when I was younger. I couldn't do much of anything, really, but I picked some things up along the way."

"Get him to cook for you one day," Stefan said. "I always used to tell him that he should open a restaurant, but he wouldn't listen to me."

"I don't know if I could see Damon as a chef," Elena said as she glanced at the elder Salvatore. "That just doesn't mesh with the image at all."

Damon nudged her hip with his. "What, you couldn't see me running a kitchen? What should I be doing, then?"

"I don't know," she said, grinning at him. "You seem to enjoy keeping me from being bored, so maybe that should become your full-time job."

He wrinkled his nose. "I think I'd go insane if I spent that much time around you. You're a little crazy."

Her eyes widened, and she whacked his shoulder gently. "You're worse than I am, so don't even start with me. If anyone's going to go crazy from overexposure, it's going to be me."

"Keep telling yourself that, Lena," Damon said as he put a few more pieces of bread into the basket. "If you have to lie to yourself in order to sleep at night, you can go ahead. I don't have that problem."

"Yeah, I'm sure you don't," she said. She glanced at her friends to see that they were all staring at her, wide-eyed. "What? You guys look like deer in headlights."

There was a flurry of activity as Caroline resumed icing cookies and Stefan and Bonnie pretended to be engaged in conversation. Elena looked at Damon and rolled her eyes. He offered her a half-smile and went back to slicing the bread. Elena carried the potatoes over to the stove and deposited them into a pot of water. Once that was done, she turned to Bonnie.

"Bon, check the turkey for me, would you?" she asked. "It should be just about done, but it's going to need to sit for a little while before we eat anyway."

Bonnie nodded. As Elena had guessed, the turkey was done, and the twenty minutes that followed its removal from the oven were busy as gravy was made, the salad was put together, and the potatoes were mashed. Damon carried the turkey into the dining room for Elena while she brought in the potatoes, and the other three carried a dish or two in as well. They settled themselves around the table as Elena carved the turkey, and the combination of food, friends, music, and decorations made her smile to herself as she dished out the meat.

It had taken her until the solstice to actually put up her tree and decorate the house. She'd been putting it off in the hopes that Jeremy would return home and help her, but when he didn't, she'd resigned herself to doing it on her own. Part of her had been tempted to call Damon and ask him if he wanted to help, but she'd stopped herself at the last second. He was her friend, and a new one at that. She could justify inviting him for Christmas with not wanting him to be alone, but there was no real reason for her to invite him over to help with the decorating. Maybe if he were still around the following year...

She forced her thoughts to the present as she put turkey on her own plate and sat down. Dishes were passed around, and once everyone had a full plate of food in front of them, they began to eat. It wasn't long before they fell into a comfortable rhythm in their conversation, though Elena noticed that Damon didn't say much to anyone but her. When he spoke, it was usually directed towards her or a very general question that anyone could answer. He seemed to be avoiding directly addressing anyone else, though he eventually began to direct the occasional statement towards Caroline and Bonnie. Stefan, on the other hand, he all but ignored. Despite that, they were able to have a full conversation over the meal, and while Elena didn't want to jump to conclusions, she felt it was safe to say that Bonnie was warming up to Damon, and Caroline might have been as well, though that was a little more difficult to judge.

After dinner, Damon helped Elena clean up all of the dishes, make coffee, and get out all of the cookies and other desserts that she'd made, and then everyone moved into the living room. Caroline and Stefan took the couch, while Bonnie took the armchair. That left the loveseat for Damon and Elena. His arm laid along the back of the couch, and she tucked her feet up under her before she relaxed, her shoulder coming in contact with his side. He made no attempts to move, and she didn't either, content to just sit there with him as she drank her coffee.

"When do you go to New York next, El?" Bonnie asked after a few minutes of silence.

Elena made a face. "I'm supposed to go in March for that annual dinner that we always have, but if I don't get something in soon, I don't know if I'm going to be attending that."

"I'm telling you, talk to Tyler," Caroline said. "He'll help you figure it out. This happens to practically everyone at some point in their career when they're in your field. Don't stress about it too much."

"It was a lot easier for me to tell myself to do that when I wasn't less than a week short of a deadline with absolutely nothing to offer up," Elena said. She shook her head after a moment. "Can we not talk about this right now? It's Christmas, and I don't really feel like stressing myself out talking about work. It's never done me any good before, and I doubt it's going to now." She looked at Caroline. "I take it you want to go up to the boarding house on Saturday so that we can decorate?"

Caroline nodded. "I was thinking we could go up there at about ten and get a head start on the decorating, and then we can have some lunch before we finish." She turned her gaze to Damon, who was drinking his coffee and looking at the fire. "You should join us, Damon. We can use all the help that we can get."

Damon turned to look at her. "I'm sorry, what?"

Elena had to keep herself from laughing. She knew he'd zoned out, since their conversation was one that he would likely file under the "boring" category. "She was saying that you should join us in decorating the boarding house for New Year's," Elena said. "For that matter, you should join us on New Year's too. It wouldn't be right for you to help decorate and then not be there to enjoy it."

"She's right," Bonnie said. "You should come, Damon. It'll be fun."

Damon looked at each of them in turn, only for his gaze to linger on Elena. She nodded once, and he shrugged after a moment. "I don't see why not."

Elena smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder. She froze a moment later when she realized what she'd done, but when all he did was shift his arm so that it laid more comfortably across her shoulders, she relaxed, her hands wrapping around her mug as she turned her gaze to the fire. There was no need for her to turn for her to know that Caroline and Bonnie were staring at her, and that Stefan probably was as well. It didn't matter what they thought, really. As long as Damon was okay with it, she wasn't going to worry about what anyone else was saying. Their friendship was—well, it was whatever it was—and that was their business, not anyone else's.

After a while, she turned to look at her friends. Caroline was tucked against Stefan's side, her eyes closed, while Bonnie was holding her mug in both hands and staring at the fire. Elena stayed where she was until she finished her coffee, at which point she sat up and arched her back, stretching her arms over her head.

"I'm going to go make more coffee if anybody wants some," she said. "Decaf, though, so that we can all sleep tonight."

"Another cup for me, please," Bonnie said.

"I'd love a cup too," Damon said.

"Put me down for one as well," Stefan said.

"So all of us except for Caroline," Elena said. "Got it. Care, do you want some tea or something?"

Caroline's eyes were still closed when she responded. "No, I'm good. Sleepy."

Elena laughed softly as she stood up. She paused in the doorway to look at everyone. They'd returned to their earlier positions, with the exception of Damon, who was staring at his empty mug, an unreadable expression on his face. Elena watched him for a moment before she shook her head and made her way down the hall to the kitchen.

She was in the middle of filling the kettle when somebody said her name. When she turned to see who it was, she all but dropped the kettle, and she set it carefully on the counter before she launched herself into the arms of the young man who stood just inside the doorway to the kitchen.

"You asshole!" she said when she stepped back. She punched his shoulder. "You could've told me that you were coming home, Jer. I would've kept a plate warm for you."

"I can eat leftovers," he said, grinning at her. "Did you really miss me that much?"

"Of course I did, you idiot," she said, pulling him into another hug. "You're my brother and I haven't seen you in months. What did you think was going to happen?"

"I was expecting a little more yelling and a little less hugging," he said when she pulled away. "Everyone here?"

She nodded. "Yeah, they're all in the living room, but Jer—"

"Is everything okay in here?"

She turned to see Damon, who stood just behind Jeremy. Bonnie, Caroline, and Stefan were visible just behind him. Jeremy turned as well, and his eyes widened.

Elena bit her lip. "Damon, this is my brother Jeremy. Jer, this is—"

Jeremy cut her off. "Damon Salvatore?" He looked over Damon's shoulder at Stefan. "Why didn't you tell me that your brother is _the_ Damon Salvatore?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Elena asked.

"He played for Blackburn for his first five years in the Premier League, and then he was traded to Arsenal in 2008 after Thierry Henry left for Barcelona," Jeremy said. "I figured it was just a coincidence that he and Stefan had the same last name, because I didn't think that they would actually be related." He held out his hand. "It's so awesome to meet you. I'm really sorry about your accident, man. That sucks."

Damon shook Jeremy's hand, a tight-lipped smile on his face. "Thank you."

Elena looked at him, and then at her brother, who was staring at Damon like he'd just seen a god. She smiled slightly. "Jer, why don't you guys go back into the living room. I'm sure Bonnie would appreciate the chance to see you."

Jeremy's eyes lit up at the mention of his girlfriend. "Yeah, let's do that." He stepped around Damon to kiss Bonnie and take her hand, and Stefan and Caroline followed the pair of them out of the kitchen.

Once they were gone, Elena crossed her arms and leaned back against the island, her gaze locked on Damon. "So, Blackburn and Arsenal, huh? I knew I'd seen you somewhere before, but I wrote it off as you being Stefan's brother. Now I know that it's because of all those games that Jer used to make me watch."

Damon's eyes widened. "You saw me play?"

"More times than I probably wanted to, yeah," Elena said. "Were you ever going to mention that little detail, or..."

He sighed. "I would have said something eventually, Elena, I promise. The whole thing is just complicated, and I couldn't—"

"What's complicated about saying that you played in the Premier League?" Elena asked. "I would've understood."

He reached out and took her hands. That forced her to uncross her arms, and he pulled her so that she stood in front of him. He looked at her, searching for something, and after a moment, he nodded. "Look, I'll tell you about it eventually, I promise you that. It's not as simple as saying that I played for Arsenal, because there's a lot more going on than just a Premier League contract, and I—It's not easy for me to talk about it." He sighed again. "I'm going to go. You should catch up with your brother and enjoy your Christmas with your friends. Thank you for dinner." She stared at him, and he leaned in, his lips brushing gently over her cheek. "Merry Christmas, Elena."

With that, he released her hands and left the kitchen. She watched him go, her mind racing and the skin of her cheek burning where his mouth had touched it. After a few moments, she heard the sound of the front door opening and closing. He hadn't been kidding when he said that he was going to go, and somehow, her stomach sank with that realization.

She shook her head eventually and turned her attention to making coffee. When she entered the living room, Jeremy was telling Bonnie, Caroline, and Stefan all about his adventures in New York. He paused when he saw Elena.

"Where's Damon?" Jeremy asked as she set a tray with mugs on it down on the coffee table.

"He left," Elena said. "He had something that he needed to do."

She took her mug from the tray and settled herself on the loveseat again, turning her gaze to the fire. Jeremy seemed to get the hint that she didn't want to talk, and he resumed his story as Elena allowed her vision to be consumed by the dancing flames.

Professional soccer player, huh? Maybe the internet would have something to say about Damon Salvatore after all.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Well, she knows _something_ now. Not many specifics, but something. Gotta love Jer. Also, the kiss on the cheek at the end? I'm giving myself all of the emotions, I don't know about you guys. **

**I gave Damon to the Blackburn Rovers because they're Matt Smith's favorite team and Smithers was my favorite Doctor (shame about them being booted out of the Premier League though), and then to Arsenal because a) Thierry Henry is a fucking legend, and b) Arsenal is my brother's favorite team in the league. He'll never read this (there's no way in hell I'm telling him I'm writing fanfiction, let alone for TVD), but it's for him anyway.**

**I'm not going to lie, I'm only about three hundred words into chapter ten right now. Being back at school kills my motivation to write, but I think it'll get better tomorrow once I go home after classes. My parents are going to Arizona for five days so I'm on house/pet-sitting duty and will be commuting for the rest of the week, and I always seem to have more motivation to write when I'm in my own room with my cat and my candles and a whole kitchen of food at my disposal. I wasn't going to update until I finished that chapter, but you guys are so awesome about reviewing and I'm already having a shitty week, so I figured I might as well make somebody happy since I'm pretty much dying for the weekend. **

**Five and a half weeks, eight exams, three papers, and a few drafts of one short story to go. As of April 24th, I will be free until the end of August. I just have to keep breathing through it.**

**I hope you guys like the chapter, and I can't wait until we get to chapter nine, because I think it's safe to say that it's my favorite so far, though chapter ten might usurp that position once I finish it.**

**Peace and love x**

**~AC**


	8. Chapter 8

Elena didn't speak to Damon at all on the day following Christmas. Nobody did, actually. She'd called Stefan to ask if he'd heard anything from his older brother, but the answer to that question was a no, and she doubted that Damon would have called Bonnie or Caroline, so she didn't bother to check in with them. The Beanery was closed until after New Year's—Bonnie's policy was holiday break from the winter solstice to January 3rd—so Elena wouldn't see Damon there either, not that she would have expected him to come in. No, she had the sneaking suspicion that he was avoiding everyone, especially given that it was the first day that they hadn't exchanged at least one text by noon since he'd given her his phone number.

She had just finished lunch and was on her way back to her living room when she stopped in the hallway.

"No," she said to herself. "No, we're not doing this."

Instead of walking down the hall to the living room, she turned and made her way up the stairs. In her bedroom, she tossed a few articles of clothing and her laptop into an overnight bag and zipped it up. She shouldered it and went downstairs to the kitchen, where she put some food into a reusable grocery bag. Once she had shouldered that bag as well, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed a very familiar number.

Jeremy answered on the third ring. "What's up, El?"

"I'm going up to the lake house for a couple of days," Elena said as she grabbed a coat from the hall closet and pulled it on. "I'll be back tomorrow night, probably, and if I'm not, I'll be back on Saturday in plenty of time for decorating. I just wanted to let you know so that you don't try to come over, and if you do, you aren't surprised when I'm not here." He was staying with Bonnie, at least for the indefinite future, so she doubted that he would be walking in unannounced, but it never hurt to be sure. "Let everyone else know too, if you wouldn't mind."

"Are you okay?" Jeremy asked. "You don't normally go up to the lake house like this unless something's happened."

"I'm fine," Elena said. She let herself out of the house and closed the door behind her. "I just need to go someplace quiet to think where I know I won't be interrupted. I'll see you in a few days."

Jeremy was quiet for a moment. "Okay," he said eventually. "Drive safely."

"I will," she said. "Bye, Jer."

"Bye."

She hung up her phone and slipped it into her coat pocket before she opened the door to her car. Once her bag was safely in the backseat, she got in the front. As soon as she had music playing, she backed out into the street and drove off.

The drive to the lake house took over an hour, and as the trees and houses rushed past her, she found herself relaxing. The quiet atmosphere at the lake had always served to help her sort through whatever problems she might have been having, and it was also the one place where quiet didn't aggravate her writer's block. She could disassociate herself from the rest of the world for a while whenever she was at the lake, and sometimes that was exactly what she needed. Yeah, some people would tell her that she was just avoiding things whenever she did that, but when she was faced with a problem that she couldn't easily solve, separating herself from the real world usually helped her to figure out a way to deal with it. She needed the time at the lake more than usual, as she had two problems that she needed to solve: her writer's block, and one Damon Salvatore.

It didn't make sense to her, it really didn't. Sure, playing in the Premier League was a big deal—a _huge_ deal. It was the top tier of football in the UK, there weren't a lot of people in it, and there were even fewer Americans. Still, that didn't explain why he'd been so unwilling to talk about it. She hadn't told him that she was a writer, but she wrote under a pen name and only her closest friends knew what it was, so it wasn't as though he was going to stumble across her work knowingly. His name had to be everywhere, especially if what Jeremy had said about his move to Arsenal was true, and she couldn't think of any reason why he would feel a need to keep it a secret. She could understand wanting to be able to go out in public without being harassed by people wanting autographs, but beyond that... If she was being honest, what bothered her most about his refusal to share that with her was that she'd thought she was his friend, and that he would tell her those things. Everyone had their secrets, and she had hers too, but how was she supposed to feel when her friend wasn't honest with her?

"Hypocrite," she muttered to herself as she turned onto the long gravel road that led to the lake house. "You haven't told him anything about you, really. Why should you expect him to share with you?"

It was something that she was going to have to ponder, that much was definitely clear.

She continued to think about it as she carried her bags into the house, where she put the food in the refrigerator and dropped her overnight bag by the bedroom door. Her friends knew that she didn't like to talk about the things that had happened in her life between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two, and for good reason. They'd also been there through it, though, so she didn't have to explain it to them. Most people in Mystic Falls knew, really, but Damon didn't, because he hadn't been there. He had no reason to know anything about what had happened to her and her family, and she really didn't have any reason to know what had caused him to return to Mystic Falls. The only reason for them to share those things with each other was their friendship, and it was still developing, so it was hard to say what they should and shouldn't know about one another.

She ended up in front of one of the windows. With her hands braced on the windowsill, she looked out over the lake. It was frozen, and she knew that she would probably be able to walk out on it if she tried. When she was younger, she and Jeremy would always run out when the ice was thick enough to slide around on it in their shoes. They'd spent a lot of time at the lake house when they were growing up, as it was a favorite retreat of their parents, and she had almost as many memories there as she did in her house back in Mystic Falls. It was a part of her past that she didn't mind remembering, though it still left her nostalgic for what had been.

Eventually, she turned away from the window and went into the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea. She loved coffee, she really did, but her problems had reached tea level. Too much caffeine would only make things worse, rather than helping her to think. Besides, tea was always the stereotypical writer's beverage, so who knew? She might have an idea while she had a cup.

Once she had her mug in hand, she fetched her laptop and stationed herself at the table where she could look out of the windows whenever she needed a break from the computer screen. She took a sip of tea as the laptop turned on, and she logged in as soon as the screen presented itself.

She busied herself checking her email and social networking accounts, but after a while, she couldn't stave off her curiosity any longer and typed Damon's name into the search bar.

A whole list of articles popped up—he had a Wikipedia page, which she probably shouldn't have been surprised by, since she had one too, though her real name and picture weren't on it—most of them from foreign news agencies. As she read over the headlines, her brow furrowed. No matter how far down she scrolled, they all related to the same thing, so eventually, she returned to the top of the page and clicked on an article from a major British newspaper.

_Arsenal Forward Damon Salvatore In Major Car Accident_, the headline read. She bit her lip as she looked down at the text of the article itself. It was short, but it still told her something she hadn't known before.

_19 June 2012_

_Arsenal forward Damon Salvatore was in a major car accident at just after eleven o'clock last night. Mr. Salvatore was not driving at the time, and was in the car with friends when they were broadsided while driving through an intersection. His rep has informed us that he is in critical condition at an undisclosed hospital. We will update as we know more._

_Mr. Salvatore tied Thierry Henry's scoring record in the Premier League with his last game, and has played for Arsenal since he was traded there in 2008. He has been in the Premier League since he joined the Blackburn Rovers in 2003._

She sat back in her seat when she finished reading. That must have been the accident that Jeremy had referenced on Christmas, but it didn't explain what Damon was doing in Mystic Falls, or why it had taken him over a year to return there after the crash.

She clicked back to her search results and opened another article.

_Arsenal Forward Damon Salvatore On Leave From Premier League_

_28 June 2012_

_Arsenal forward Damon Salvatore was released from the hospital this morning after spending nine days there following a car accident on 18 June. Mr. Salvatore sustained three broken ribs, a broken humerus, a broken femur, and a concussion in the crash, and will be on leave from the Premier League until further notice. We have contacted his rep and received no further comment._

She clicked back to the search results and scrolled through them. There weren't many new articles for a few months, and she opened one from that October.

_Damon Salvatore Retires From Premier League Following Injuries_

_12 October 2012_

_Arsenal forward Damon Salvatore has retired from the Premier League following injuries he sustained in a car crash on 18 June 2012. His rep has issued the following statement:_

_"Mr. Salvatore has suffered injuries that will take time to heal, and likely will not allow him to return to professional football. We ask that his privacy be respected as he further recovers. Thank you."_

_During his time with the club, Mr. Salvatore tied Thierry Henry's scoring record in the Premier League. Arsenal fans around the globe will mourn the loss of the best player the club has seen since Mr. Henry, and the club will be hard-pressed to replace him. From everyone here, we would like to say: Get well soon, Mr. Salvatore._

Her eyes widened, and she took a deep breath as she read the first two lines of the article over again. That must have been what Damon meant when he said that it was complicated. She couldn't blame him for not wanting to discuss the terms of his departure from the league, not if it had happened as suddenly as the articles suggested. Really, she couldn't blame him for not wanting to discuss the league at all. It must have remained a sore spot for him, the fact that he couldn't play anymore. She couldn't help but wonder why he'd returned to Mystic Falls, though. Yes, it had taken a few months for him to retire from the league after the accident, but it had been more than a year since then, and he'd only been back in Mystic Falls for about a month.

She sighed to herself as the parallels between Damon's life and her own became more apparent to her. They'd both returned home after tragedies, though what they'd lost wasn't quite the same. The accident also didn't explain his tense relationship with his brother. Sure, Jeremy had his rough spots when he was younger, but he and Elena had never avoided each other the way that it appeared Damon had been avoiding Stefan. Elena and Jeremy had needed each other more than anything after everything had gone wrong, while it seemed that Damon had cut off all contact with his brother.

Elena knew that Damon's absence bothered Stefan. He hadn't talked about his older brother much when she was dating him, but every once in a while, he would make a comment and his expression would sadden for a moment before he would change the subject. His comments about Damon's lifestyle choices hadn't really begun in earnest until about a year before, but Elena hadn't seen any articles pertaining to less-than-stellar behaviour on Damon's part during her brief scroll through. All of the titles had something to do with his accident, and none of them had any statements directly from Damon. No, whatever problem they had seemed to be more on Damon's end than anything else, though his presence at Christmas seemed to suggest that he might have been getting over it, whatever _it_ was.

She was still staring out the window when her phone rang. With a sigh, she glanced at the caller ID and then answered it. "Hi, Bonnie."

"Is something wrong?" Bonnie asked. "Jeremy said you went up to the lake house."

Elena rested her chin in her hand. "I needed to get out of there for a while so that I could think, that's all."

"That doesn't sound good," Bonnie said. "Seriously, El, something's up. What is it?"

Elena bit her lip for a moment and then sighed. "Damon didn't talk to me at all yesterday, and he hasn't tried to get in touch with me today. I know that probably sounds stupid, but we talked every day in the week leading up to Christmas, and it feels weird that he hasn't said _anything_ to me. It was bothering me, so I came up here to think and see if I could come up with any ideas for my next book. It's still a negative on the second part, but..."

"But what?" Bonnie asked.

"I looked Damon up," Elena said. "Read all about his car accident and everything. I can see why he wouldn't tell me, but I just wish that he wouldn't think that he doesn't have anyone to talk to about this stuff, because I'm sure it's been bothering him."

Bonnie didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Yeah, Jer told me about that," she said after a while. "It sounded like it really messed him up. He couldn't walk for a couple months, and then when he finally could, he got the news that he wouldn't ever be able to play again. Can you really blame him for not wanting to talk about it?"

"I mean, no, but it just..." Elena sighed again. "I'm worried about him, Bon. I know I haven't known him for very long and all of that, but I think he needs someone to worry about him just for the sake of it."

"You two are friends," Bonnie said. "The rest of us might not understand it, but you are, and I know you'd be worrying about any of us if something like this came up." She chuckled a moment later. "You should've heard Caroline after we all went home on Christmas. She called me and spent twenty minutes going back and forth between saying how cute the two of you were curled up on the couch and how much of an awful idea it was. I won't say too much about what I think of him, because I don't know him all that well, but I find it hard to believe the few stories that Stefan did tell us about him when he treats you like that."

"There's nothing going on, Bonnie," Elena said. "We're friends, that's all. I'm just... I'm comfortable with him."

"I can tell," Bonnie said. "And I think that's good. I also think that you need to give him the benefit of the doubt for a while. He's obviously not close to Stefan, and like you said, it doesn't seem like he has anyone to be concerned about him that he actually talks to willingly, so just give him some time to get used to the fact that you're here and you'll listen. He'll come around eventually. It's pretty obvious that he adores you already."

"I don't know if I'd go that far," Elena said.

Bonnie laughed. "Call it whatever you want, El, but the man thinks the world of you. He braved a house populated by his brother, his brother's girlfriend, and a woman that he doesn't know at all because you asked him to come to Christmas dinner. Give him time. He'll come around, and if he doesn't, I'll give you a month off from work with pay."

"You know that you're not going to be able to convince me to take time off, but I appreciate your certainty about Damon," Elena said. She made a face a moment later. "In other news, my deadline is tomorrow and I still don't have anything, so it looks like this might be the end of me calling myself a writer."

"Tyler will help once you explain it to him," Bonnie said. "He believes in you, just like the rest of us. Yeah, I'm sure he'll have a bit of wrangling to do to convince the company to give you another extension, but you're one of the biggest writers they've got. They'd have to be incredibly stupid to risk losing you over this."

"They've got a ton of other writers," Elena said. "They don't need me."

"They don't need you, but they'll want to keep you," Bonnie said. "I know it's hard to deal with since you don't know what's going to happen, but don't assume that they're going to drop you until it actually happens, all right?"

"I guess," Elena said. "Thanks, Bon."

"I'm your best friend, it's what I do," Bonnie said. "Just relax, okay? About all of it. Talk to Tyler, and sort out the whole thing with your deadline, and give Damon some time. It's going to be fine."

"I hope so," Elena said. "I'll see you on Saturday."

"Yeah," Bonnie said. "Let me know how it goes with Tyler."

"I will," Elena said. "Bye, Bon."

She could hear the smile in Bonnie's voice when her best friend spoke. "Bye, El."

Elena ended the call and set her phone down on the table. Bonnie was right, she knew that, but it was still difficult for her to stay relaxed when so many things in her life were complicated. She sighed to herself. At least Jeremy was home, which meant that she had one less thing to worry about. She'd just traded her easy, developing friendship with Damon for her brother's return, and she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about that switch. There was absolutely no question that she loved her little brother, but it would have been so much easier if he hadn't come home until after Damon had told her about the car accident and everything else.

It was too late to worry about what-ifs, though, so she elected to get up and get herself something to eat.

Everything was quiet as she ate, and she turned her attention to her laptop once she was finished. She still didn't have anything new, so she was trying out some of the exercises that she'd done in her writing classes in college in the hopes that they would stimulate the flow of ideas. No matter what she did, she wasn't going to have enough to give to Tyler the next day, but if she could at least come up with _something_...

Her phone rang just before dinner, and she took a deep breath before she answered it. "Hi, Tyler."

"Please tell me that you've got something to submit for your deadline tomorrow," he said.

She ran her hand through her hair. "Um..."

He sighed. "Elena..."

"I know, Tyler," she said. "I know. I've been trying to come up with something, but I'm not having any luck, and I can't just make myself have an idea. It doesn't work that way. Please just try to get me a little more time. I promise I'll have something soon."

"That's what you said when I got you your last extension," Tyler said. "You do understand that if you don't give me something, both of our careers will be over? The company brought us in together. If one of us goes down, we both do."

"I know, and I'm sorry," Elena said. "I'm trying. You can ask Bonnie or Care. I spend most of my time trying to think of something new, but it's not going well, and the more I stress over it, the harder it gets."

"I'll see what I can do, all right?" Tyler asked. "I can't make any promises though, you have to understand that."

"I do," Elena said. "I'll let you know as soon as I come up with something that might work. I just don't have anything right now."

The next time Tyler spoke, his voice was warmer. "Is everything all right? You don't sound so good. And before you ask, I'm asking as your friend, not your editor."

Elena shrugged even though she knew he couldn't see her. "It's... Things are a bit of a mess right now in general, so I'm having a tough time of it the whole way around. Jer came home on Christmas though, so there's that at the very least."

"That's good," Tyler said. "He was up here for what, six months?"

"Something like that," Elena said. "It's nice to have him back, but it's going to take a little bit of getting used to. He's staying with Bonnie, so at least he's not stealing all the hot water and using my favorite mug or anything like that."

"Small favors," Tyler said. "You're going to come up here for the dinner in March, right?"

"You know they wouldn't forgive me if I skipped it," Elena said. "I'll be there, provided I haven't been dropped from my contract by then. Are you going to come back and visit anytime soon, or are you going to stay in New York for the rest of your life?"

"We'll see," Tyler said. "I'm sure I'll be back when Care and Stefan get married, whenever that is. You know she wouldn't forgive me if I missed it."

"It's not that she wouldn't forgive you, it's that she would kill you," Elena said. "We'll all be dead and buried if we aren't there, no matter how far away we are."

"That's Caroline for you," Tyler said. He laughed a moment later. "I'm still not sure how I dated her for as long as I did. I mean, it was great when it happened, but looking back on it..."

"You guys were in high school, and people change a lot after that," Elena said. "I feel the same way about Stefan. He'll always be my friend, but the idea of dating him again is just weird, Caroline or no Caroline."

"Everyone's over everything, which is the important part," Tyler said. He sighed a moment later. "I'm expecting another call in a couple of minutes, so I should get going. I'll let you know about the extension."

"Thank you so much, Tyler," Elena said. "You're the best."

"And don't you forget it," Tyler said. "Talk to you soon."

"Yeah," Elena said.

He ended the call, and she set her phone on the table once more.

She meant what she'd said to him. If he managed to get her another extension, she would have something for him at the end of it, even if she had to take off from The Beanery and not sleep for a week in order to come up with an idea. Being a writer had always been her dream, and she wasn't going to lose it because she was having a little bit of trouble coming up with something. No, she wasn't going to give up on it, and she wasn't going to give up on Damon either.

With that thought in her mind, she grabbed her phone and sent him a text.

_Come spend the day with me at my lake house tomorrow._

His reply came a few minutes later.

_I'm busy_.

She rolled her eyes and picked up her phone again.

_No, you're avoiding. Come. For me._

She could practically see him sitting there fighting with himself as she waited for her phone to give its customary chime. After about fifteen minutes, it did.

_Address?_

She smiled to herself as she texted it to him.

The lake house was definitely the place to be when she needed to solve problems.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Yeah, I still don't have chapter ten done. **

**I actually haven't gotten anywhere on it since I updated last... Oops. College completely kills my motivation to write. Actually, it's not even that it kills my motivation to write, because I _want_ to write, but it's just so... Ugh. I'm so sick of my dorm and the people that I live with that being around them is so mentally draining that just getting my classwork done is a pain in the ass. I have four more weeks of class and then finals. I just have to keep reminding myself of that. **

**I didn't want to make you guys wait, though, cause I do have chapter nine finished, and I'll make sure that I finish ten before I post nine. **

**I need the semester to be over to the point where it's insane. I seem to have a thing about being anxious in the spring, because I felt this way last year too. It's so close... Of course, then I get to work all summer, but hey, at least I won't have homework, right?**

**I hope you guys like the chapter.**

**Peace and love x**

**~AC**


	9. Chapter 9

Elena woke up in her bed at the lake house just before eleven, sunlight streaming through the curtains. She rolled from her side onto her back to stare at the ceiling, reaching up with one hand to rub her eyes. After a few minutes, she stretched out her arm and felt around on the nightstand until she felt her phone. She picked it up and glanced at the screen to see that she had a text from Damon that had arrived thirty minutes earlier.

_Leaving now._

She stared at it for a few moments before she threw the blankets off, grabbed leggings, a bra, and a sweatshirt from her overnight bag, and disappeared into the bathroom. It didn't take her very long to shower, and she blow-dried her hair quickly before she threw it up into a messy high ponytail and went out to the kitchen. She put on water for coffee and turned on the radio before she got pancake mix out of one of the cupboards. As she poured it into a bowl and added water, she hummed along to the song that was playing. She was just about to pour the first pancake onto the griddle when there was a knock at the door.

Bowl of pancake mix still in hand, she went to answer it. Damon stood there, in dark clothes as usual, and he looked her over when she opened the door. After the previous day, she didn't feel particularly inclined to dress up, and she ignored his stare as she stepped aside and gestured for him to walk past her into the house. He did, and she shut the door behind him. She didn't say anything as she turned around and started down the hall, choosing instead to leave when they started talking up to him.

"Any particular reason for today's invitation?" he asked before they'd even reached the kitchen.

"Any particular reason why you've been avoiding talking to me for the last few days?" she asked.

He raised one eyebrow. "Touché." He nodded in the direction of the bowl that she held. "Isn't it a little late for breakfast?"

"I got up half an hour ago, so no," she said. "Do you want some? I'm not going to making anything for lunch until mid-afternoon, so don't expect any food other than these for a while."

"Sure, I'll take a couple," he said. He leaned up against the counter as she poured batter into the pan on the stove. "Really though, why invite me up here?"

"I need to tell you something, and I didn't really feel like doing it back in Mystic Falls," Elena said. "It's easier here." She poured another pancake onto the griddle and wiped the edge of the bowl with her thumb. As she sucked the batter off of her skin, she could feel Damon watching her, and she didn't bother to turn around to look at him when she spoke again. "But if you don't mind, I'd like to wait until after we eat to share it with you, because it's going to put me off my pancakes otherwise."

He didn't say anything for a while, and she let him stand there in silence as she grabbed the spatula and flipped the pancakes over. As they finished cooking, she fetched two plates from the cupboard and set them on the counter. She got herself a mug of coffee and then divided the pancakes up between the two plates before she mixed more batter and poured it onto the griddle. One of her favorite songs came on the radio, and she hummed along as she made a cup of coffee for Damon and set it on the counter beside him. She could tell that he wanted to say something, but he didn't speak until after she put the second batch of pancakes on their plates, deposited the griddle in the sink, and carried her meal over to the table.

"What is this place, exactly?" he asked as he set his plate down opposite hers and took a seat. "You haven't mentioned it before."

"My family's lake house," Elena said. "We used to come here a lot when I was younger, and I come up here when I need to think. It's peaceful up here."

"I can see that," he said. "It's all beautiful."

"My mom did her best to keep it that way, and I've tried to follow in her footsteps," Elena said. "It helps that Jer doesn't come up here much without me, so I can make sure that the place is being properly taken care of."

Damon nodded, and neither of them said anything else as they ate. Elena was perfectly content to look out the window and enjoy her morning the same way that she would if Damon wasn't there, and he seemed to be attempting to decipher what it was that she was going to tell him. She could practically see his mind churning as he ran through their past conversations, but she had no urge to satiate his curiosity that soon. He could stew over it the same way that she'd stewed over his omission the day before, and she would tell him when she was ready. It was her business, after all, and he was lucky that she was even going to share it with him.

She picked up his empty plate after they were both finished eating and deposited all of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, save for their coffee mugs, which were still partially full. He watched her as she picked up her mug, wrapped her hands around it, and went over to the window. She didn't ask for him to join her. Instead, she sorted through her thoughts in an attempt to decide what it was that she was going to tell him, and in what order. There was a lot to be said, and she didn't really feel like going into the details of all of it, but she needed to make sure that she touched on the important things and didn't leave any gaps in her story.

Her gaze turned to the lake, where the morning sunlight was reflecting off the ice. Everything outside was bright despite the grey of the trees, and she allowed the sun to warm her face for a few moments before she began to speak.

"I was born in Mystic Falls," she said eventually, her speech unbroken as she told a story that she'd thought about so many times that she didn't even have to pay attention to it anymore. "We all were, I know, but I was born in the office of Dr. Grayson Gilbert on a rainy night at the end of June to a teenager who had been in a relationship with Grayson's brother. They were both too young to take care of a baby, and they wanted to go off to college, so I was left in the care of the doctor and his wife. They'd only been married for about a year, but they were settled in the Gilbert family home and they had plenty of money, so they adopted me. It was a secret, and as far as anyone else was concerned, Miranda had given birth to me. I looked enough like her and Grayson that no one had any reason to believe otherwise."

Damon hadn't moved behind her, and she didn't turn around to look at him before she continued. "I didn't know that I was adopted, of course. I called them Mom and Dad growing up, and as far as I'm concerned, they still are. They raised me, and I was Grayson's biological niece, so the family connection is there." She took a sip from her coffee. "Everything was fine when I was younger. Dad was a doctor, Mom looked after Jer and me and did things with the town council, and we were the perfect family. We got along well and nobody ever really fought over anything." Damon shifted behind her, and she waited for the noise to quiet. "Sophomore year, about a month before I turned sixteen, my boyfriend convinced me to go to a party. I wasn't supposed to, since my aunt Jenna was in town and we were meant to have family night, but I went anyway. I got in a fight with him and left, and as I was walking home, it started raining, so I called my parents to come and pick me up."

She laughed softly for a moment. "They were so mad at me, Damon, to the point where they wouldn't even scream. They came and got me, and as we were driving over Wickery Bridge, our car hydroplaned. They hadn't redone the bridge yet, so we went straight through the guard rail and into the river. My dad managed to get me out, but he couldn't get his legs free, and my mom was trapped too." Her voice quieted, and she closed her eyes. "I'm sure you can imagine what happened to them."

She heard a sharp intake of breath behind her, and she opened her eyes. "I wasn't even sixteen yet, and Jer was only thirteen, so we couldn't be left on our own. Our aunt Jenna moved here to take care of us, and everything was a mess for a long time. She tried really hard, but she's only seven years older than I am, and she didn't know how to be a parent. I wasn't too bad, but Jer spiraled, and it took everything we had to get him on the right track. That was also when I found out that I wasn't actually my parents' biological daughter, and that hit me pretty hard, but I eventually accepted it." She took another sip from her mug and sighed. "Your brother and father moved back to town at the end of the summer, and against my better judgment, I started dating Stefan that fall. Jenna encouraged me to do it, said I needed to get out and try to be a normal teenager, so I did."

Memories flashed through her mind, and she smiled slightly. "Things got a lot better after that. Jenna started dating my history teacher, which was weird, but good for her, and I started doing things again. I didn't really go to parties or anything like that, but I went out with Bonnie and Caroline, and Stefan and I went on dates, and Caroline got all of us involved in the dance committee. Jer and Bonnie started dating our senior year, which took a little bit of getting used to, but it obviously worked out for them." She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "Care, Bonnie, Stefan, and I all ended up going to Whitmore for college, while our friend Tyler went to NYU and our friend Matt ended up in Connecticut."

She turned around and leaned back against the windowsill, though she didn't bother to look at Damon. "I spent college writing like mad. I've always loved books, and Mom and I had always talked about me becoming a writer, so with her gone, I threw myself into it. My senior year, I sent a manuscript to Tyler, who had an internship at a publishing house in New York, and they picked both of us up as soon as we graduated. It was his first real editing job and my first novel, but it became a best-seller pretty quickly. Nobody back home knew it was me unless I told them because I wrote under a pen name. I was living in New York at that point, going to events, meeting people, building a list of contacts in the publishing world."

At that point, she met Damon's gaze. He was watching her with an unreadable expression on his face. "Everything seemed like it was perfect at that point. Care and Stefan had gotten together, Bonnie and Jer were still going strong, Jenna and Ric had gotten married my junior year and had a daughter, and I was a successful published author at the age of twenty-two. Of course, nothing good lasts, and that winter, Jenna was diagnosed with uterine cancer. She and Ric moved out of Virginia so that they could get her treatment at the best hospital possible. They'd been taking care of my parents' house for me while I was in college and then living in New York, because while the deed had passed to me when I was eighteen, I didn't want to come back. With them gone, though, I had to, and I moved back here right after they left."

Damon opened his mouth to say something, and Elena shook her head. "Jenna didn't die. They managed to get the cancer into remission, but she'll never have another child unless it's by surrogate, and she and Ric won't move back here, because they want to stay close to the hospital in case it comes back. Still, she's gone, and I'm on my own, aside from Jer and my friends, and now, you." He didn't seem to have anything to say to that, and she bit her lip. "I know you're probably confused as to why I'm telling you this, but it's actually pretty simple. I get not wanting to talk about your past. I hate talking about mine, and I usually don't have to because all of my friends were here for it. You didn't know, though, and it's not fair of me to expect you to tell me about your history if you don't know anything about mine. I understand if you're not ready to share it, but I'll be here when you are, and until then, you know mine. Trust breeds trust, right?"

A moment later, the full weight of all that she had said hit her, and she turned around to look out the window just before the first tear fell from her eye. She set her mug down and braced her hands on the windowsill, her head bowed. There was the sound of movement behind her, and not long after that, Damon touched her shoulder. She didn't turn around to look at him, and it didn't take him more than a few moments to pull her into his arms. Her breaths coming in shaking sobs, she pressed her face against his shoulder and let him hold her upright. After he leaned against the wall, he trailed his fingers up and down her spine in an attempt to soothe her, and for a while, all she was conscious of was the feeling of his arms wrapped around her, the sensation of his fingertips on her back through her shirt, and the scent of his cologne. Whatever it was, it smelled good.

Eventually, she let out a shaky laugh and wiped her eyes. "Sorry. I haven't talked about any of that in a long time, and it just..."

"It hit you," Damon said, his arms still wrapped around her. "I get it." He sighed. "I wish I could tell you a story of my own, but I can't do that."

"That's okay," she said. "You'll tell me when you're ready, and until then, I'll be here." She looked up at him then, brown eyes meeting blue, and bit her lip. "You have to promise me that you're not just going to walk out like that again the next time something comes up. I know that it wasn't exactly the best way for me to find out, but we have to talk about these things."

"I know," he said. "I don't do apologies as a general rule, Elena, but I'm sorry about Christmas. I shouldn't have done that. It wasn't right of me, especially after you invited me to spend the holiday with you."

She turned her head so that she could rest her cheek against his shoulder. "No, it wasn't, but we'll figure it out, yeah? We all have our secrets and our reasons for not sharing things, and it wasn't really fair of me to expect you to be honest with me when I wasn't honest with you."

"I wouldn't say either of us were dishonest," he said. "We were lying by omission, not with falsehoods." A moment later, she felt him take a deep breath. "You have to promise that you won't tell anyone about what I used to do, though."

"I won't, as long as you don't tell anyone about my book," Elena said.

"Speaking of, what is your pen name?" Damon asked. "I want to know if I've read your book." She turned her face to his shoulder and murmured something. He chuckled, and she could feel his chest rumble where her body was in contact with it. "I'm afraid I didn't hear that. You'll have to speak up."

She made a face and lifted her head to look at him. "I write as E.M. Sommers. I used my mom's maiden name because I didn't want to risk people seeing E.M. Gilbert and making the connection."

Damon stiffened. "You wrote _Heartbeat And Bone_? Elena, that book was fantastic. It was at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for what, twenty-eight weeks?"

"Thirty-two," she said, ducking her head so that she didn't have to meet his gaze. "And that's why I'm having trouble with work stuff. I had a deadline today for my next book and absolutely nothing to show for it. I'm waiting on a call from Tyler to hear if I got an extension or not. If I didn't, I've officially broken my contract, and that's going to be the end of it."

"You'll come up with something," Damon said. "I'm sure you've heard that from everybody, but Elena, it's true. You have to know that."

"And if it's not?" she asked.

"If it's not true, you'll still have written one bestselling book, and you'll figure it out," Damon said. "You've got your job at The Beanery,and you'll work until you come up with an idea for another book, and then you'll get picked up by another publishing house, and if you're not, well, I'm sure the royalties from _Heartbeat And Bone_ could probably tide you over for the rest of your life as long as you spent them wisely."

"You're the first person who's actually given me a scenario where I don't have another idea," Elena said. "Everyone else is entirely convinced that I'm going to have a great idea and write a fantastic book, and I... I just don't know about that anymore."

"You're what, twenty-four?" Damon asked. Elena nodded. "If you don't have another idea, you've got plenty of time to reinvent yourself and come up with something else to do with your life. I sincerely doubt that you'll go your entire life without ever coming up with an idea for another book, but if you do... You'll find a way to amuse yourself, I have no doubts about that." After a few moments of silence, he tightened his arms around her for an instant. "Seeing as I drove out here and you've said your piece to me, what do you want to do for the rest of the day? I have no plans to leave until well after dinner, so you're stuck with me."

"Did you walk in here with that attitude, or is that a recent development?" she asked.

"I was either going to leave within twenty minutes or stay all day, and seeing as the first option is out the window, I'm staying," he said. "Really, what do you want to do?"

She laughed softly. "I'll be honest, I wasn't really expecting that you'd want to stay, so I was just going to sit around and read for a while, and maybe watch a movie after dinner. I'm lazy when I'm up here, usually. We could go for a walk around the lake if you want, though. It's beautiful out there, even if it is cold."

"That might be a good idea," Damon said. "Otherwise we won't leave this house, and anyway, I liked the look of the lake when I got here. It would be nice to see it up close."

"Just let me grab a coat and some boots and we can go," Elena said. He nodded. A moment later, Elena laughed again. "We can't go anywhere if you don't let me go."

"Then let's just put it off until the next time we're both up here," he said. "I'm comfortable."

She bit her lip in response to the surge of emotions that ran through her with that statement. Her heart beat just a little bit faster, and she had to keep herself from asking him if he meant that he was comfortable in her home, or comfortable holding her in his arms. Part of her wanted to know the answer to that question, but a bigger part of her knew that it was the wrong time to ask it. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his waist and tucked her head beneath his chin. He tightened his grip on her, and she let out a contented sigh. She hadn't expected any of the previous ten or so minutes to occur, but they had, and she wasn't going to complain about it.

After a while, she pulled away from him. He let her, though his hands remained on her hips and his eyes flashed with something that was gone too quickly for her to determine what it was.

She smiled at him. "Standing up is exhausting, so what do you say we go with my original plan and sit down and read or watch television or something?"

He smiled, and she was pleased to see that it was his real smile rather than the crooked one that had appeared so often during her first few interactions with him. "That sounds great. Do you have any books available, or do I need to pull something up on my phone?"

"I have a whole stack of things in my room," she said. "You can take your pick from those. I was going to."

"That sounds great," he said.

His hand trailed across her hip and back as she turned, and when it fell to his side, she mourned the loss of contact internally. He followed her to her room, and she gestured to the bookshelves on one of the walls once they were inside. "It's nowhere near the collection that I have at home, but it'll do, I think."

He glanced over the titles and then looked at her, a small smile on his face. "It'll do just fine."

They each selected a book and made their way back out to the living room. Damon sat down first in the center of the couch, and Elena sat down on the end with her back resting against the couch's arm. She placed her legs over Damon's lap, and he didn't react except to pull the blanket off the back of the couch and throw it over both of their laps.

He began to read, and she watched him for a few moments before she opened her own book. She was lost in the words of the story within minutes, and everything around her faded from her mind as she joined the novel's characters on their journey.

They read well into the afternoon, and she was the first to close her book, only to notice that Damon's free hand had slipped beneath the blanket. He was rubbing circles on the bare skin of her calf below where her leggings ended, and he didn't seem to be aware that he was doing it. She smiled to herself and reached out to touch his shoulder gently. His fingers paused on her leg, and he turned to look at her. A moment later, he moved his hand away from her skin.

He smiled sheepishly. "I didn't realize I was doing that."

"Neither did I, until about two minutes ago," she said. "No worries. Do you want some lunch? Although, I suppose I should probably call it an early dinner. It's almost five."

"I think that sounds perfect," Damon said. "What've you got?"

"Spaghetti and meatballs," Elena said. "Well, I'll have to cook the spaghetti, but the meatballs are in the freezer. I make a big batch of them and then freeze them in sauce so that they'll be ready whenever I need something to eat." She smiled a moment later. "I'm sure it's not going to be as good as when you or Stefan make it, seeing as I don't have all of that Italian blood like you two do, but I've been told they're fairly good."

"Lena, I told you before that I won't complain if you're feeding me," Damon said. "I'll cook dinner for you one of these days, though, I promise."

"I'll be sure to hold you to that," Elena said. She pulled the blanket off and swung her legs off his lap so that she could stand up. "I brought some stuff for a salad if you want to make yourself useful and prepare it."

"I think I can do that," he said.

They settled into an easy rhythm as they prepared dinner, and their conversation flowed through the preparation, meal, and clean-up. Afterwards, they settled down on the couch again with cups of decaf coffee to watch a movie. Elena tucked herself into Damon's side, and he wrapped his arm around her.

As they sat there with the movie playing and a fire flickering in the fireplace, Elena could almost allow herself to pretend that they weren't just friends, and that she still didn't know much about what had happened to him beyond what the articles had said. When he dropped a kiss to the top of her head without seeming to realize it, the urge to pretend increased, but she couldn't.

She knew she couldn't.

She would just have to keep her thoughts to herself, and let things happen as they would, no matter how hard it was for her.

* * *

**A/N:**

**I just finished chapter ten, and let me tell you: that one was a doozy to write (I'm pretty sure it's also the longest chapter thus far), but for now we're on chapter nine, so I'll stop talking about ten.**

**Thanks so much for all of the reviews and feedback—to the person who was annoyed that Elena looked Damon up, a) I hope that what she divulged to him in this chapter will be enough to offset her research into his past, and b) she's a writer. Our curiosity knows no bounds. I can't tell you the amount of weird shit that I've looked up for absolutely no reason that had nothing to do with anything I was working on. If I hear a name and I can't place it or I know that they're famous but I don't remember why, I look it up. My great aunt was best friends with Gene Kelly (From Singing In The Rain) and she used to help him with his dance studio and yet I still look him up even though the family could probably tell me more than the internet can.**

**I'm trying to start stockpiling AU ideas, so if there's anything else you'd like to see for Damon and Elena, please let me know. I can't promise that I'll write it for them (I have a whole host of couples that I need ideas for and if it fits one of them better in my mind, that's what I'll use it for), but there is a distinct possibility that I'll end up using your idea at some point.**

**Also, the song "Agape" by Bear's Den reminds me of Damon and Elena so much (at least, the chorus does): _I'm so scared of losing you/and I don't know what I can do about it/about it/so tell me how long love before you go/and leave me here on my own/I know it/I don't want to know who I am without you. _State Of Grace by TSwizzle also kind of reminds me of them too, but Agape really does (or at least, it reminds me Damon). **

**I've hit 50,000 words for March (51,710 if we're being specific, not counting the rewrite of my short story for my writing class or the stuff I've written on my personal blog), and I can't wait to post chapter ten, but I have to write chapter eleven before I do that. Soon. I have to write a paper tomorrow (it's due on Monday oops) and start studying for my last in-term exams/finals so I don't know how much writing I'll be doing for this, but I will try.**

**Three weeks of class and a week of finals (well, two days of a week, anyway) until I'm done, and then I get to get a summer job... Yay.**

**I hope you guys like the chapter, and I'll try to post again soon. Long author's note is long.**

**Peace and love x**

**~AC**


	10. Chapter 10

New Year's Eve fell on a Tuesday that year, and true to Caroline's plan, the whole gang spent the Saturday before up at the boarding house decorating it—the whole gang including Damon. He'd seemed slightly uncomfortable when faced with Jeremy's constant, badly-masked gawking, and he hadn't said much of anything to Stefan, which seemed to be the norm for him, but he laughed with Elena and even spoke with Caroline and Bonnie of his own accord. If it weren't for Jeremy's hero-worship, Elena felt sure that Damon would have talked to him too. As it stood, she couldn't really blame him for avoiding conversation with her younger brother. Something about Damon's refusal to discuss why he'd come to Mystic Falls and his request for her to not divulge his previous career told her that he was trying to stay out of the public eye, and that afternoon, when he'd vanished up to his childhood room in the boarding house to look at something, she pulled Jeremy aside.

"You've got to stop, Jer," she said.

His brow furrowed. "Stop what?"

"Staring at Damon like he's a massive celebrity," Elena said. "I know you're excited, but it's making him uncomfortable even if he won't say anything."

"What am I supposed to do, El?" Jeremy asked. "He played for Arsenal. I can't just pretend that I'm not standing in the room with the guy who tied Thierry Henry's Premier League scoring record. Everyone was convinced it was going to take thirty years."

"Well, it didn't, and Damon's here to—well, I don't know what he's here for, exactly, but I know he's not here to be stared at," Elena said. "Look, Jer, just... Treat him like he's Stefan's mysterious older brother, or my friend, or anything that won't be as weird as you staring at him like you're seeing a unicorn." Jeremy muttered something under his breath, and she raised her eyebrows. "What was that?"

He shrugged. "Nothing. Yeah, I'll try." Her brows rose even further, and he sighed. "Seriously, El. I've got it."

Sure enough, when Damon returned from his venture to the second level of the boarding house, Jeremy proceeded to treat the older man in a way that Elena had only seen in one other situation—when Jeremy was judging her prospective boyfriends. She wasn't sure if she should have been concerned about that idea being planted in her brother's mind, but Damon relaxed in Jeremy's presence after that and even seemed to be amused by the younger man's attempts to catch him off guard with questions, so she didn't do much to try to change the direction of Jeremy's thoughts.

Not long after that, Elena had taken a break from decorating and was in the kitchen making coffee for everybody (she wasn't quite sure how exactly it had happened, but being on coffee duty had become her job even when she wasn't working) when Stefan approached her. He leaned up against one of the counters and watched her as she poured coffee into mugs and set them on a tray.

After a few moments of silence, she sighed. "What is it, Stefan?"

She didn't have to turn around to know that he had his arms crossed and his brow furrowed as he attempted to put words to the thoughts that were running through his mind. After all the time they'd spent together, she knew him well enough.

"I need you to talk to Damon," Stefan said eventually.

"What about?" she asked as she added sugar and milk to the appropriate cups. "He's your brother. Why don't you do it?"

"Because that's the whole problem," Stefan said. "He won't speak to me, Elena. He talks to you, and he even talks to Bonnie and Caroline, but he doesn't say a word to me."

"And what am I supposed to do about it?" Elena asked. "He's his own person, Stefan. I can't make him talk to you."

"No, but if he'll listen to anybody, it's going to be you," Stefan said. "I know he talks to you about things. Hell, you probably know more about him as he is now than I do."

She was quiet for a moment. Stefan wasn't wrong. Damon wasn't exactly forthcoming when it came to everyone else—hell, he wasn't really even forthcoming when it came to her—but he would engage with the others. With Stefan, though, he wouldn't say a word, not directly. "I'll try, but I'm not making any promises."

"I wouldn't ask you to," Stefan said. "Thanks, Elena."

"Don't thank me yet," she said. She picked up the tray, turned around, and handed it to him. "You're here, so you can carry this."

That made him laugh, and he followed her back to where everyone else was with the tray in his hands.

Early in the evening on New Year's Eve, Elena found herself in her bedroom with Bonnie and Caroline. Clothes were thrown all over the bed, and Elena was relatively certain that Caroline had spread her entire makeup collection out overtop Elena's dresser. Neither Elena nor Bonnie had intended to let the pre-party preparation get that out of hand, but Caroline had other ideas and insisted that they all had to get ready together. She was the only one who had managed to get dressed within ten minutes of arriving, and she had been rifling through Elena's closet for the better part of twenty minutes when Bonnie sighed.

"Care, you do know that this is an informal event and that we don't need to look like we're going to a fancy-dress party, right?" Bonnie asked.

"It's New Year's Eve, Bonnie, and there are going to be cameras," Caroline said. She bit her lip. "No, not that, it's too... Green." She pushed past the shirt she was looking at and continued to search through the clothes. "Everyone needs to look their best so that when we look back on these pictures in ten years, we don't hate them."

"The only people who'll be looking at them will be us," Elena said. "And honestly, as long as I'm with you guys, I don't really care what I look like. We lived in a dorm together, remember? We've seen each other's least attractive moments."

"Be that as it may, I'm not going to encourage either of you to look less than perfect tonight," Caroline said. "We're welcoming in a new year. We should look our best while doing it."

"If it'll make you happy, then so be it," Bonnie said, though she cast a 'What have we gotten ourselves into?' look in Elena's direction, who shrugged in response.

Caroline smiled. "Good." A moment later, she threw some clothes at Elena. "Go put those on, would you?"

Elena stopped herself from rolling her eyes, grinned good-naturedly, and went into the bathroom to change. She was pleasantly surprised when she discovered that Caroline had given her a pair of skinny jeans—her best pair that made her legs look like they were a million miles long—and a black sweater. It wasn't a standard knit sweater, though, as it hung loosely and revealed the majority of her back even as the neckline reached to just below her collarbones. Jenna had given it to her during her senior year of college, and she hadn't made much use of it. Looking at herself in the mirror, though, she couldn't quite figure out why that had been the case. Caroline had already done both Elena and Bonnie's hair and makeup, and the clothes had just been the final touch.

She went back out into her bedroom. Caroline raised her eyebrows, and Elena nodded. "I'll admit it, you're a genius."

"Good," Caroline said. She thrust a pair of bright red heels at Elena. "Wear those too."

"You do realize that I'm going to ditch these as soon as we're at the boarding house, right?" Elena asked as she took the shoes. "I'm not going to wear them all evening. They murder my feet."

"You don't have to wear them all evening," Caroline said. "You have to wear them through the door, wear them long enough for pictures..." She paused and laughed for a moment before she started to put her makeup back into the bag that she'd brought it in. "You can take them off after that."

"Something tells me there should've been something else on that list," Elena said.

"Maybe, maybe not," Caroline said. She tossed some clothes at Bonnie then. "You change too." Bonnie groaned and went into the bathroom, clothes in hand. As soon as she was gone, Caroline turned to Elena. "I don't know what it is, but there's something that tells me that tonight's going to be special." She held out her hand, a statement necklace dangling from it. "Put that on too."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Elena said as she took the necklace and fastened it around her neck. "It feels just like any other New Year's Eve to me." She slipped her feet into the high heels that Caroline had given her and sat in one of the only clothing-free spots on the edge of her bed. "I'm glad that Jer's back, though. It all feels a lot better with him around."

Caroline laughed. "The way that he started talking to Damon on Saturday... He definitely thinks that there's something going on between the two of you."

"He can think what he wants," Elena said. "That doesn't make it true. It didn't seem to bother Damon, so I'll take Jer thinking that over him gawking at Damon every single time they're in a room together."

"I can see how that would be a bit off-putting," Caroline said. She turned to the mirror to put on a pair of glittering emerald earrings—Stefan had given them to her as a Christmas gift, and she'd been finding some way to work them into her outfit almost every day since, though she would never actually admit it. "As long as he has you around to distract him, though, I'm sure he'll be fine."

"I don't exactly make a point of trying to do that," Elena said.

Caroline smiled. "I'm sure you don't."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Elena asked.

Bonnie emerged from the bathroom as Elena said that, and her brow furrowed. "What's what supposed to mean?"

"I don't even know," Elena said as she glanced at the clock. "Are you guys ready to leave? We agreed that everyone should start showing up at eight, and it's getting close to that."

"I'll drive myself," Caroline said. "I left something at home that I need to get before I head over to the boarding house."

"You're good coming with me, right, Bon?" Elena asked.

Bonnie nodded. "That's fine with me. I'll head home with Jer tonight."

"I'm going to go now, but Elena, make sure you wear your long black coat, all right? That wool one that you bought on that shopping trip that we had when I came to visit you in New York right after you moved?" Caroline said. "It'll go perfectly with the outfit."

"Aye-aye, captain," Elena said, grinning. "You'd better get out of here or you'll be seriously late."

"I prefer fashionably late," Caroline said. Elena just narrowed her eyes, and Caroline grinned. "I'm going. See you ladies there."

She winked at her friends and left the room. Bonnie and Elena exchanged another glance, and then Elena looked at the state of her room. "Cleaning this up is going to be fun."

After looking around the room, Bonnie laughed. "Here, I'll help and we'll get it done and then we can go."

"You're a lifesaver, Bon," Elena said.

It didn't take them as long as Elena was expecting to gather up all of her clothes and return them to their proper locations in her closet and her dresser. Of course, it helped that Bonnie knew Elena's room almost as well as Elena did, and she didn't need instructions on where certain articles of clothing went. Elena hummed to herself as they left her room and went downstairs, and, with Caroline's instructions firmly in her mind, she opened the coat closet by the front door and pulled out the coat that Caroline had been talking about.

There wasn't anything particularly special about it—it was a black double-breasted pea coat that belted at the waist, and it hung to her mid-thigh. Still, it went well with the rest of her outfit, and with its high collar, she didn't need a scarf. As usual, Caroline's fashion sense was on point. Elena didn't know why she was surprised anymore.

She let Bonnie lead the way out to the car. As Elena drove, Bonnie fiddled with the radio, and between the music and the occasional bit of conversation, the drive to the boarding house passed quickly.

Even though she'd spent all of Saturday decorating the place, Elena still couldn't help gaping slightly as she parked by the front door. Jeremy and Stefan had taken over hanging lights on the outside of the house while Caroline and Bonnie hung ornaments on the trees that Caroline insisted they get and Elena and Damon decorated the mantles of every fireplace that the boarding house had to offer, and Elena had to say that they'd done a fantastic job. The lights were all clear—according to Caroline, colored lights were a) only appropriate for Christmas if they were ever appropriate, and b) incredibly tacky—and they turned the outside of the boarding house from a ghost story waiting to happen into a glittering paradise.

By the time Elena pulled herself out of her thoughts and made her way to the front door, Jeremy had already opened it. He and Bonnie were busy greeting each other, and Elena rolled her eyes good-naturedly as she walked past them into the house. It was decorated in a similar fashion to the exterior, and there were tiny twinkling lights wrapped around columns and banisters no matter where she looked. With the dimmed overhead lights and a fire flickering in the fireplace, she felt like she was looking at something out of a movie.

As she shrugged out of her coat, she felt someone grab it, and she turned around to see Damon. He hung the coat on a hanger and put it in a closet before he looked her over. A small smile came to his face, and she bit her lip and tilted her head as she attempted to decipher the meaning behind his expression. He reached out to push her hair out of her face, and she didn't move away from his touch. His fingers brushed gently against her cheek as he pulled his hand back, and it took everything in her to keep her face from turning to a bright shade of red.

"You look... Wow," he said after a few moments. "Nice shoes."

She looked down at the red heels with their pointed toes and made a face. "Give Caroline credit for all of it. She picked out all of our outfits and did our hair and makeup. It was like getting ready for high school dances all over again except this time I'm lucky enough to be able to wear jeans." A moment later, she gave him a once-over too, and she felt her stomach curl at the sight of him. Somehow, despite the fact that he always wore a similar outfit, the dark blue shirt and black pants seemed especially attractive that night. She shook her head to dispel the thought and smiled at him. "You look good too."

"I'm glad I have the lady's approval," he said. He held out his arm. "Care for a drink?"

"That would be great, thanks," she said.

She slipped her hand into the crook of his arm and let him lead her through the house to the kitchen. Despite the fact that she'd been there enough times in high school to know where most things were, she wasn't about to deprive him of his fun. Besides, it was fun for her too. It went back to their earlier conversations, the fact that he didn't need to be a gentleman, and his seeming insistence on being one with her both spoke volumes and gave her an endless source of amusement. He was good at it, he really was, but it didn't quite suit the image of the dark and foreboding stranger.

Elena could smell food before they even got to the kitchen, as Stefan had promised that there would be a late dinner at around nine. Sure enough, he was in the kitchen when they entered it, leaning up against one of the counters and turning something over in his hands. Things bubbled away on the stove, and Elena could see a batch of rolls cooling on the counter, but none of that seemed to matter to Stefan. His green eyes were wide as he looked at Elena, and her brow furrowed at the sight of the panicked expression on his face. "Stefan, are you okay?"

"I honestly don't know," he said.

"Why don't you tell me about it, and I'll see if I can help?" Elena asked. Damon dropped his arm, and she glanced at him. "I'd love a glass of wine, if you wouldn't mind."

"Red or white?" he asked.

"Red, please," she said. He nodded, and she returned her attention to Stefan. "Seriously, what is it? You haven't looked like this much of a mess since the day that you and Caroline told me that you were dating." She exhaled sharply. "Wait, you're not breaking up with her, are you? You can't do that on New Year's, that would just be cruel."

Stefan shook his head. "Not quite." He held out the object that he was twisting around in his hands.

Elena's eyes widened as she took in the sight of the platinum band studded with diamonds. "You're proposing? Why didn't you say anything?"

"I wanted to be a surprise," Stefan said. "She's not here yet, is she?"

"No, she said that she forgot something and needed to stop at the house," Elena said. "I doubt she'll be long, though. She left before us and we cleaned up my room before we came over here so she had a pretty good head start. When are you going to do it?"

"After she gets here," Stefan said. "I wanted to do it out by the fire though, with the trees and the lights. Can you take the pictures? I left my camera on one of the tables."

Elena laughed. "Of course I can. Well, I guess Caroline's insistence on all of us looking great is going to pay off." She laid her hand on Stefan's shoulder. "Look, Stefan, just breathe. Put the ring away, go out there, talk to Bonnie and Jer, breathe, and relax. Damon and I will be out in a minute, okay?"

Stefan slipped the ring into his pocket and sighed. "You're right. I don't know why I'm so nervous about this."

"I do," Elena said. "We all know that she's going to say yes, but it's a big deal. Major life events don't happen often." He nodded, and she smiled at him. "Go on out there."

He left the kitchen as Damon approached her and handed her a glass of wine. He held a glass of his own, though it was a tumbler and contained a dark amber liquid instead of wine.

"What are you drinking?" she asked as he offered her his arm once more.

"Bourbon," he said. "It's a particular favorite of mine."

Elena made a mental note of that as they made their way out to where everyone else was gathered. Stefan was talking to Bonnie and Jeremy, though he still looked somewhat harrowed, and Elena laughed quietly as she took in her friend's appearance. Damon glanced at her, his arm brushing against hers as he did.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"I just never see him like this," Elena said, nodding in Stefan's direction. "He's always so composed. It's funny to see him ruffled. I know why he's worried, but it's still amusing." Damon nodded once and didn't say anything, though his jaw tightened. Elena fought the urge to caress his cheek in an attempt to convince him to relax, and instead took a sip of wine. "You could talk to him a little more, you know."

His jaw tightened further, and his voice was expressionless when he spoke. "I don't see why that's necessary."

"He _is_ your family, and it's the holidays," Elena said. "I don't know what it is that's keeping the two of you from speaking to each other, but..."

"You're right, you don't know, so don't meddle," Damon said. She flinched visibly at his words, and something flashed over his face a moment later. "That was out of line."

There was no apology in his statement, and she sighed internally. "Yeah, it was," she said, turning her gaze back to Stefan.

She could feel him sigh beside her, though the crackle of the fire and the sounds of their friends' conversation drowned out the noise. Bonnie went to answer the door as Elena took another sip of wine, and Stefan tensed as the sound of Caroline's voice drifted towards them. He looked at Elena, and she nodded once. She saw some of the tension leave his shoulders, and he stood up as Caroline entered the room. Something told Elena that he wasn't going to pull out the ring then and there, and she was proven right when he drew Caroline into his arms and kissed her soundly.

At the sight of them, Elena turned her gaze to the fire. She was all too aware of Damon's presence beside her, and her grip on her wine glass tightened. As much as she loved the holidays, they were always a reminder of what her friends had managed to achieve—they were all happily settled, content with the lives that they were leading, and she'd only returned home because her aunt had gotten sick and there was no other choice. No, everyone else had returned to Mystic Falls and found love, and she was still drifting the same way that she had been since she'd come home. At least when she was in New York, there was always something happening, some sort of distraction. In Mystic Falls, there was nothing to keep her from her thoughts during the holiday season, what with her distinct lack of family members and her lack of a day job thanks to Bonnie closing The Beanery.

She was lost in her thoughts when she felt something touch her elbow. The contact was enough to jolt her out of her mind, and she glanced at Damon.

There was something in his eyes that she couldn't identify, though it disappeared behind a wall almost as soon as she looked at him, and her stomach twisted when she saw that he had that crooked smile from their first meetings fixed on his face. He gestured in the direction of her—their?—friends with his glass.

"Sickening, isn't it?" he asked.

"I don't know if that's the term that I would use," Elena said. "It's..." She looked at everyone else and chuckled a moment later. "I don't have a word for it. I'm a writer, and I don't have any words."

"We all get a little lost sometimes," Damon said.

She looked back at him just as he took another drink, his gaze on something that she couldn't identify, the firelight dancing across the glass in his hand. Part of her wondered if he was talking about himself as much as he was talking about her confusion, but she stifled that thought almost as soon as it appeared. She needed to stop trying to psychoanalyze him. It wasn't helping with anything.

Stefan glanced at her a while later and nodded once, just after she finished her wine, and she traded her glass for his camera, which sat on the end table beside her. Bonnie and Jeremy looked on in confusion as Stefan cleared his throat, and Elena lifted the camera so that she could look through the viewfinder as he took Caroline's hands in his. The sound of the shutter closing as she took the first picture made her wince, but nobody else seemed to hear it.

"Caroline Forbes, I know our relationship didn't exactly start the way that you'd always pictured your fairytale, but I know how much you deserve your happy ending, and I want to give it to you," Stefan said. Elena snapped a picture just before he sank down to one knee, and another right after his leg touched the floor. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring, and Elena took a shot that perfectly captured Caroline's facial expression as she took in the sight in front of her. "Will you marry me?"

Caroline's hands flew to her mouth, and Elena was quick to immortalize it. A moment later, Caroline's hands fell away, and she began to nod. "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!"

Stefan slipped the ring onto Caroline's finger as Elena took another picture, and then he rose. He pulled Caroline into his arms and kissed her as Bonnie and Jeremy applauded and Elena took a few more photos. She set the camera back down on the table as Caroline and Stefan pulled apart.

"How about we have some champagne?" Elena asked.

"That's a brilliant idea," Stefan said. He kissed Caroline quickly. "I'll be right back."

Laughter filled the boarding house as they drank their champagne and ate, but Elena noticed that Damon was never a part of it. At just after eleven, he disappeared into the library, and she busied herself gushing over Caroline's ring and talking about wedding plans—Caroline would never fail to start planning early—until she couldn't stop herself anymore.

Not long before midnight, she set her glass down—she'd switched to water just after dinner, knowing that she had to drive home later—and made her way to the library. Bonnie and Caroline were too busy discussing color palettes to notice her leave, and Stefan and Jeremy were too busy watching their respective partners to notice either. It was something that Elena was grateful for as she nudged open one of the heavy library doors so that she could slip inside.

Damon stood at one of the windows, silhouetted by the night sky outside. He lifted a glass to his mouth and drank as Elena watched him, and when she took a step forward, the floorboards creaked under her bare feet (She'd lost the heels not long after they'd opened the champagne).

"What are you doing here, Elena?" Damon asked, though he didn't turn around.

"I wanted to see where you were," she said. "You just... Disappeared."

He was silent for a few moments, and she took another few steps forward as she waited for him to speak. When he did, his voice was quiet, and she had to step even closer to make sure that she didn't miss anything. "Why are you trying so hard with me?"

She shifted her weight from foot to foot as she attempted to form an answer to his question. He still didn't turn around, and she bit her lip before she answered. "I guess... I guess it's that I had people who were there for me every single time something went wrong, and they helped me hold it together, and I know you've got a lot to deal with even if I don't know what all of it is, and I think you need someone who's going to be there for you no matter what, because I had those people and they saved me even when I didn't think that I needed saving." A moment laughter, she laughed softly. "That's not to say that I think that you need saving, but you need someone who's going to be there."

He finally turned around, his blue eyes glinting even in the dim light of the library. "And you are?"

She nodded resolutely. "Someone has to be, and it might as well be me."

He seemed content to just watch her, his gaze roving over her face like he had to commit it to memory forever, and eventually he set his glass down on a table by the window. She bit her lip once more as he looked at her, and a few moments later, she heard the sound of Caroline, Stefan, Bonnie, and Jeremy all chanting out the countdown to the ball dropping. Something in her said that she should be out there chanting with them, but a bigger part of her told her to stay exactly where she was.

Just as they hit ten, Damon swore. "Damn it, Lena."

He crossed the distance between them in a few long steps, and before she could say anything, he crushed his mouth to hers. Her arms wrapped his neck as one of his hands tangled in her hair and the other moved to press against her back to hold her to him. His skin made contact with hers where her sweater dipped above her waist, and she would've sworn that it burned, but not in a bad way. No, it burned in a way that ignited something within her, and she knotted her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck as he pulled her even closer to him and deepened the kiss. He tasted like bourbon and something else that she couldn't place, and despite her general distaste for most types of hard liquor, she couldn't say that she minded one bit.

Just as she was about to gasp for breath, he released her. She stumbled back a few inches, her gaze locked on his, and he reached out to brush her hair out of her face the same way that he had when she'd arrived earlier that evening. So intent on his face and the look in his eyes, it barely registered to her when he spoke.

"Happy New Year, Elena," he said, his voice barely more than a whisper. He pressed his lips to her cheek, just as he had on Christmas, and then he left her there, standing in the moonlight that streamed through the windowpanes.

Without any conscious effort on her part, her hand moved so that she could press her fingers to her mouth. There was only one thought in her mind as she stood there in the empty library.

What the _hell _just happened?

* * *

**A/N:**

**Nope, not an April Fools' prank. That really did happen. **

**I don't actually have chapter eleven done yet, but it's Camp NaNo now which means I'll have to write every day, and I'm almost halfway through it now, so you guys can have this chapter (Plus I'm just dying to see your reactions to this). **

**I'm officially done with semester three weeks from tomorrow (which might be today depending on where you're reading this from), which is going to be wonderful, but for now I have two tests, a short story draft, an essay, and three finals between me and freedom. I registered for classes for next semester today, and I have no class on Fridays, which is going to be awesome. **

**My favorite aunt and cousin are coming to visit this weekend for Easter (also one of my least favorite uncles, but hey, trade-offs), and I'm really excited for that. My cousin is practically my older sister and we're going to one of my favorite restaurants for brunch on Saturday morning, and I always get new clothes when my aunt comes around because she loves to buy me things (this is not the reason why she's my favorite aunt, but it is a plus), so it should be a good time despite the fact that I have a test on Tuesday. **

**I had another idea for a Delena AU, but now it's gone, and I'm really hoping I'll remember it again—seriously, guys, if there's something that you want to read in terms of AUs for them, please let me know, because I just might write it when I'm done with this (and once I finish my Scorose story for the people who are following me for HP fics).**

**Let me know what you think, let me know if you love me, let me know if you hate me, I'm going to go write more of chapter eleven, and I'll post again soon.**

**Peace and love x**

**~AC**


	11. Chapter 11

In the days that followed New Year's Eve, Elena didn't know what to think about Damon's unexpected actions. Truth be told, she didn't really know what to think about anything at all, and that might have been the worst possible thing that could have happened to her. Rather than being able to do what she normally did when faced with an issue that she knew the details of—write about it—she was forced to find other ways to occupy her time (ways other than making herself even more frustrated about her absolute lack of ideas in regards to her next novel).

The most logical of those ways manifested itself in a cleaning frenzy. With The Beanery closed for the first couple days of the new year, she spent them scrubbing every inch of her house instead. Jeremy wasn't there to question her motives as he'd been spending most of his time at Bonnie's, and cleaning on top of and underneath everything Elena owned seemed to be the only possible way for her to forget about the feeling of Damon's mouth on hers and his hands on her skin.

Well, it seemed to be the only possible way if it were possible to forget about that, which it didn't seem to be. She couldn't find the words to explain how much it frustrated her that she couldn't stop thinking about him—never in her life had she found herself so twisted up in knots over a guy, and she knew that if she so much as mentioned it to Caroline, she would never be able to live it down. It wasn't like her, dwelling on something like that, but it had been so entirely unprecedented (at least in her mind) that she couldn't tear herself away from it.

For the love of everything, she didn't even _like _him.

(At least, that was what she told herself. Whether or not it was true remained to be seen.)

She was still wrapped up in her thoughts when she made her way into The Beanery for her first of work since the holidays on the Friday following New Year's. That wouldn't have mattered if it weren't for the fact that some people knew her better than others, and Bonnie immediately zeroed in on the slight difference in Elena's personality.

"Spill it," Bonnie said the moment Elena stepped out of the back room with her apron on.

"Spill what?" Elena asked, meeting Bonnie's gaze. "I don't know what you're talking about, Bon."

(The one thing that she could give herself was that she was one of those people who could make eye contact and lie at the same time.)

"Yeah right," Bonnie said as Elena grabbed a rag and began to wipe down the counter. "Have you forgotten that I've known you long enough to know when something's up with you?"

(Unfortunately, that skill of Elena's didn't exactly work on Bonnie.)

"No, but there really isn't anything going on," Elena said. She set the rag down and straightened out the mugs on the counter. "Don't look for something that isn't there."

"Except there is something there," Bonnie said. "You're over an hour early for your shift and you've been avoiding everyone since New Year's. Care to explain why?"

Elena shrugged. "I was cleaning, that's all. I had the time for it and it needed to happen."

"Yeah, because you always deep-clean your house over the holidays," Bonnie said. "Seriously, El, what's going on?" Elena shook her head and Bonnie crossed her arms. "If you don't tell me, I'm going to close early so that you can't get your shift. You and I both know that you like to be kept busy when something's bothering you, and seeing as you've just cleaned your entire house, I can't imagine there's much for you to occupy yourself with there."

"That's just cruel," Elena said.

"It's not cruel if it'll get you to tell me whatever it is that you're trying to avoid," Bonnie said. "Come on, I'm your best friend. If you can't trust me, who can you trust?"

A pair of bright blue eyes flashed through Elena's mind, causing her to shake her head slightly. She wanted to trust him, that much was true, but it was hard to trust someone who kept going back and forth. Every time she thought that she'd made some sort of breakthrough with Damon, he turned around and ran in the other direction. Sure, he'd had the car accident, but that only explained his discomfort regarding the topic of his soccer career. It didn't do anything to address the way that he turned around and walked away every time she stumbled onto something personal.

When she came out of her thoughts, Bonnie was watching her with raised eyebrows. "Are you going to talk now, or do I need to make more threats?"

Elena glanced around the coffee shop, taking note of who was present. When she determined that there was no one of concern, she spoke, careful to keep her voice low. "All right, but you have to promise me that you're not going to say anything to Caroline about this. I don't need her getting ahead of herself." She sighed. "For that matter, _I _don't need to be getting ahead of myself."

"You have my word as your best friend that I won't say anything to her about whatever this is," Bonnie said.

"Are you sure?" Elena said. "I know how she can get when she wants to know something."

"I swear, El," Bonnie said. "Have I ever broken a promise to you that you really wanted me to keep?"

Elena bit her lip. "I suppose not."

"Exactly," Bonnie said. "Now, what's so important that Caroline can't know anything about it? Does it have something to do with why you've been all broody the last few days?"

"First of all, I'm not broody," Elena said. "That's still Stefan's job even if it doesn't happen as often as it did in high school. Second of all, Damon kissed me."

She muttered the last sentence, making Bonnie raise her eyebrows. "Sorry, can you repeat that? I didn't quite catch it."

Elena raised her voice slightly, though not enough that anyone in the café would be able to hear her. "Damon kissed me on New Year's, okay?"

Bonnie's eyes widened. "He did _what_?" She shook her head. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but still."

"Why wouldn't you be surprised?" Elena asked. Bonnie didn't say anything, and Elena ran her hand through her hair. "I don't know what to make of it, Bon. He kissed me, and it was a real kiss, not just one of those 'It's midnight on New Year's and I need to kiss somebody' kisses, and then he wished me a happy New Year and left."

"Are you sure that it wasn't one of those New Year's kisses though?" Bonnie asked.

"Think about it, Bon," Elena said. "I mean, you haven't spent as much time around him as I have since he arrived, but does Damon really strike you as the type to just kiss someone and leave?"

"Maybe if he resembled the person that we heard about from Stefan, but he doesn't, so..." Bonnie trailed off. "Point taken."

"Yeah," Elena said. "Exactly."

Bonnie grinned after a moment, the furrow in her brow smoothing out. "On a scale from one to Max Browning, how was it?"

Elena gaped at Bonnie. "Seriously? You're going to bring up Caroline's ranking system from college?"

"You bet I am," Bonnie said. "You've always said that no one you've kissed since then could top Max Browning, so where does Damon rank on the scale?"

"Way, _way_ above Max Browning," Elena said, ducking her head. "By a factor of about ten million, honestly."

She heard Bonnie's intake of breath. "So it's serious, then." After a moment, Bonnie let out a dry chuckle. "Well, I say that he walked away, so he gets to walk back."

"If he wants to," Elena said, looking up to meet Bonnie's gaze.

Bonnie stared at her. "Seriously? There's absolutely no way that he doesn't care about you, El. Have you heard the way that he says your name?"

"I don't know," Elena said. Bonnie raised one eyebrow and Elena sighed. "Seriously, Bon, I don't know. Like I said, I'm really trying not to get ahead of myself here."

"But you're attracted to him?" Bonnie asked.

"A tree trunk would be attracted to him," Elena said. She smiled slightly at the sound of agreement that Bonnie made. "I really don't know if it's more than that, though. He's my friend, or at least I thought he was, but I really don't know if it's anything more than that combined with physical attraction. It's not like I'm possessed with the urge to jump him every time I see him."

"I certainly hope not, because that would make things pretty difficult," Bonnie said. "You'll figure it out. You always do. I stand by what I said earlier, though. Let him be the one to come back. It's not on you to fix it every time he walks away."

"Yeah, I know," Elena said. She turned bright red when someone cleared their throat on the other side of the counter. "Mrs. Oswald! Sorry, were you standing there long?"

"Just a moment," Mrs. Oswald said. "I don't mean to interrupt."

"You're not interrupting at all," Elena said. She glanced at her best friend. "Bonnie, I've got it. Stop letting me distract you and go check on the customers."

"All right," Bonnie said as she made her way out from behind the counter. "If you need to talk later, text me, would you?"

"Will do," Elena said. "And Bon—"

"Don't say anything to Caroline, I know," Bonnie said.

Elena fixed a smile on her face and turned her attention back to Mrs. Oswald. "What can I get for you?"

"Just the usual, dear," Mrs. Oswald said. "Is everything all right?"

"Oh, it's fine," Elena said as she reached for a mug. "I just had to talk to Bonnie about something, that's all."

"If you're sure," Mrs. Oswald said. When Elena passed the mug to her a few moments later, she took it with a nod. "And Elena?"

"Yes?" Elena asked.

"Bonnie is right," Mrs. Oswald said. "You deserve much more than someone that you have to run after. You're a good girl with a good heart, and you deserve someone who sees that."

The smile that spread across Elena's face then was genuine. "Thanks, Mrs. Oswald. I'll keep that in mind."

The warmth from Mrs. Oswald's statement faded over the course of the afternoon and the evening, though. Most of the customers cleared out of the café at around the same time as Bonnie, leaving Elena to wander around and straighten up the place on her own. Every time she caught sight of movement outside the windows, she would look up, but it was always people walking down the sidewalk. There was no flash of familiar dark clothing, and she never glimpsed the leather jacket that she'd come to know so well in the time since Damon's arrival. Instead, the shop grew darker and darker as it grew quieter outside, and when it became apparent that no one else was going to come in that evening, Elena closed up early.

She walked home with her hands tucked in her pockets and her face tilted down against the wind. Her decision to walk to and from work that day had been another one borne out of her desire to fill her time so that she wouldn't have to think about what had happened at the boarding house, but it invaded her thoughts nonetheless.

The house was dark when she got home, and she flipped on a few light switches before she removed her coat. Just as she was hanging it up, her phone began to ring, and she answered it as she shut the door to the hall closet.

"Hey, Jer," she said, going into the kitchen. "What's going on?"

"Do you want to have dinner tomorrow night?" he asked. "Just the two of us? I feel like we haven't had a lot of one-on-one time, what with the holidays and all."

She filled the kettle and turned it on. "That sounds like a great idea. I'll cook, if that's all right with you."

"That's fine," Jeremy said. "How does six-thirty sound?"

"Perfect," Elena said. "I'll see you then."

"Yeah," Jeremy said. "Bye, El."

"Bye," Elena said.

When the call ended, she stared at her phone for a moment before doing something she almost never did—she held down the power button and turned it off. Sure, she put it on silent sometimes, and she wouldn't look at it for a while if she was working on something, but it was rare that she actually shut it off completely. She didn't want to have to think about it that night, though, so turning it off seemed like the best solution to the problem. Her larger problem was slightly more difficult to solve, and though she couldn't do much of anything about the root cause of it, she could certainly treat some of the symptoms.

She made herself a cup of tea once the water in the kettle boiled, and then settled down in front of the fireplace with her tea, a blanket, and a book. Her mind flashed to a similar scene in the lake house the week before, but after a moment, she shook her head and opened her book. She was _not _going to spend her night dwelling on something that she had no control over. Instead, she was going to drink her tea, read one of the many novels that she'd been putting off, and enjoy herself.

She could manage that, at least.

The following day, she worked the early shift at The Beanery, as Bonnie had wanted the chance to sleep in on a day that the cafés wasn't closed. It wasn't something that Elena protested, since Bonnie had covered for her more than once, and it tended to be less hectic on the weekends anyway.

Sure enough, the first few hours were quiet, but shortly before lunch time, the door opened. Elena's stomach sank at the sight of Caroline entering the coffee shop, purse balanced perfectly in the crook of her elbow.

"Hey, Care," Elena said. "The usual?"

"Yes please," Caroline said, taking a seat at the counter. "You will not _believe_ the morning I've just had."

"What happened?" Elena asked. She kept a careful eye on Caroline's expression as she prepared the blonde's drink.

Nothing in Caroline's face gave away that she knew about Elena and Bonnie's conversation as she shook her head. "The caterer that I hired for Tammy Pierce's wedding canceled on me. The wedding is in two weeks. I just spent two hours calling everyone I could think of to find someone who can make a similar enough menu on short notice to not ruin the whole thing."

"And I trust that you found someone?" Elena asked, passing Caroline's drink to her.

Caroline flashed her a smile. "They don't call me the best party slash benefit slash wedding slash whatever else you can think of planner in this part of the state for nothing, El."

"That was a very long label," Elena said. "Needed some coffee as a pick-me-up, then?"

"More than you know," Caroline said. She took a sip from her drink and looked at Elena with narrowed eyes. "I need to talk to you about something important."

Elena swallowed, a knot forming in her stomach. "Yeah?"

"What do you think of light blue and cream as the color palette for the wedding?" Caroline asked.

The knot in Elena's stomach dissolved. "Your wedding?"

"Of course," Caroline said, laughing.

"Well then, I think I'd say that light blue is a bit common, isn't it?" Elena asked. "Don't you want something that's unique to you?"

"That's an excellent point," Caroline said. "See, this is why I come to you for these things. Now, about the bridesmaid dresses..."

Elena half-listened as Caroline rambled about what the most appropriate style for the dresses was and how it would impact the flower arrangements. It wasn't that Elena wasn't interested in Caroline's wedding, because she was, but she had more than enough other things to think about. Besides, it wasn't like Caroline really expected her to listen—the blonde just wanted to talk her way through the things that she was thinking, with Elena's opinion entirely irrelevant. If a direct question wasn't asked, that meant Caroline didn't want input, she just wanted to say whatever went through her mind.

After a while, Caroline stood up. The movement broke Elena out of her thoughts, and she blinked a few times in order to return her focus to Caroline.

"I'm going to head out," Caroline said. "Thanks for the coffee, El."

"That's what I'm here for, quite literally," Elena said, smiling. "See you, Care."

Caroline set some money on the counter and left the shop, her blonde curls whipping in the wind as she stepped outside. Elena waited until the other woman was out of sight to open the register and deposit the money Caroline had left for her coffee. The shop was as quiet as it had been when Caroline had walked in, and Elena settled herself on a stool behind the counter. She pulled her notebook from one of the shelves and flipped it open to a still-blank page. The lines were taunting her the same that they always did, and it didn't take her long to shut the notebook again and slide it to the back of the counter, one thought in her mind: what was she doing?

That thought was applicable in more areas of her life than one at that point, it seemed, and she didn't have an answer for them. She didn't know what to do about Damon, she didn't know what to do about the novel that she was supposed to be writing, and she didn't know a lot about several other things as well.

When Bonnie came in to start the afternoon shift, Elena wasted no time in leaving. She had walked again that day, and when she got home, she busied herself getting things set up for dinner with Jeremy. He didn't really care about how things looked, but she liked it when they could actually sit down and eat together rather than taking opposite ends of the couch and watching television while they had their dinner.

By the time she was done, it was close enough to half past six for her to start cooking dinner. Unwilling to sit around and do nothing, she put a pot of rice on the stove and pulled some ingredients out of the refrigerator. Jeremy arrived when she was halfway through cutting up vegetables for the stir-fry that she had decided on, and he walked into the kitchen just as she chopped up the last carrot.

"Hey, El," he said. "Anything I can do to help?"

"Just keep an eye on the rice, please," she said, reaching for some mushrooms. "How are things, Jer?"

He chuckled. "Things are fine. Why are you so distracted?"

"What do you mean?" Elena asked. "I'm hardly distracted." As she said that, her knife slipped, just barely catching her skin. She swore nonetheless, holding her finger to her mouth. Jeremy passed her a paper towel and she wrapped her finger with it. "Okay, so maybe I am a little bit distracted."

"That's not like you," Jeremy said. "Is this about the book?"

"No," Elena said. "Well, yes, but that's not the main thing."

"Is this about Damon and the fact that he walked out on you on New Year's?" Jeremy asked.

Elena's eyes widened. "Bonnie told you about that?"

"No, she didn't say anything to me, but I saw him leave after you went to go find him," Jeremy said. "I'm not as oblivious as you think I am, El." His eyes narrowed a moment later. "Why, was there something for Bonnie to tell me?"

"Not really," Elena said. "Things with Damon are just complicated, that's all."

"That seems like a great word for it," Jeremy said. He nudged her out of the way and took over chopping the vegetables. "What's going on with the two of you, anyway? I asked Bonnie and she couldn't give me a straight answer."

"She couldn't give you a straight answer because I don't have a straight answer," Elena said, leaning up against the counter. "He likes to walk away from me as soon as he's put in a situation where he might have to be emotionally vulnerable."

Jeremy paused in his chopping long enough to glance at her. "And are you going to do anything about that, or are you just going to let it keep happening?"

"I don't know, Jer," Elena said. "He's a grown man. He can make his own decisions, right?"

"That's true," Jeremy said. He was silent for a moment before he shook his head. "I don't know, El, I'm a little worried about this."

"Why?" Elena asked. "Do you know something I don't?"

"Well, not for sure," Jeremy said. "It's just that I followed the news after his—you know—and it really messed him up. He didn't exactly handle it well after he found out that he would never be able to play again. The tabloids had a field day with him before his fans went nuts and all but put them out of business. Nobody wanted to admit that he'd turn into what he seemed to have turned into except for people trying to sell magazines."

Elena's brow furrowed. "And what was that? I didn't see anything about it when I looked him up."

Jeremy shrugged. "He made some bad choices and developed some bad habits, I guess. I don't really want to say too much about it because I still think he was an incredible soccer player and I don't like thinking about it, but I also don't want to take away the opportunity for him to tell you the truth for himself. I think that's something that he has to do if you're ever really going to be able to trust him."

Shaking her head, Elena smiled slightly. "When did you get so smart, Jer?"

"It happened when you weren't paying attention," Jeremy said. He set the knife down. "I mean it though, El. He always seemed like a really great guy when he was playing, but some of the things I've read... Just be careful, all right?"

"I wouldn't dream of doing anything else," Elena said. She sighed a moment later. "Like I said before, the whole thing is complicated. It'll be what it will be, and I'm going to try to let him do things at his own pace right now. It's not for me to decide when he'll be comfortable enough with me to tell me the truth about all of that. I just hope it's soon." After a brief pause, she smiled. "But enough about that. Do you know what you want to do now that you're back?"

The conversation didn't return to Damon for the rest of the evening, but Elena couldn't help but run through what Jeremy had said all through their meal and even after he left. If what he had said was true—if Damon really had made bad decisions, whatever they might have been—that was something that he needed to tell her himself. She couldn't pry it out of him, because he would resent her for it. Like Jeremy had told her, the only way she would be able to truly trust Damon would be if he told her those things of his own accord. She couldn't fix him. He had to fix himself.

That thought struck her as she sat in front of the fire nursing a cup of hot chocolate, and she stiffened before she grabbed her laptop off the coffee table and opened it. Her fingers flew over the keys as she typed out the plot synopsis that was running through her mind, and by the time she finished, the remains of her hot chocolate had grown cold.

It was with a smile on her face that she sent the document off to Tyler.

At least that was one less thing that she had to think about.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Long time, no post, huh?**

**My apologies for that. The announcement about Nina leaving completely threw me off my game in the spring when I was starting to work on this again, and it's been a struggle for me to find enough time to sleep, let alone write anything outside of my assignments for class (balancing a job, classes, and my other responsibilities this semester has been no easy task). I'm on break now though, so I figured I should probably get _something _out. This probably has typos in it somewhere and it's a little bit of a mess, but I'm exhausted and have to work in approximately eleven hours, so I'll worry about those later.**

**Brief life updates: I am no longer a writing major and am instead double majoring in accounting (which hasn't changed) and anthropology (this is the change). I have a job (which I hate and only keep because it's only for this year and then I'll be able to get something that will pay me real money). Arrow and The Flash are my obsessions and I don't see that changing anytime soon. My life is turning into a coffee shop AU (though not this one) because I pretty much live in one coffee shop on campus and have met some _very _interesting people because of it. I spend 98% of my time wanting to sleep (although that's not really a change).**

**No promises on when the next update will be, though I'll try to make it soon (depends on how caught up I get in my most recent original fiction idea, which I really, _really_ want to get mostly done before I go back to school (which will be a feat in and of itself) so that I can get that posted elsewhere). I hope you guys like this, though, and I'm sorry for a) the lack of Damon/Elena interaction in this chapter and b) how stupidly long it's taken me to get it out.**

**Thanks for sticking around if you did, and thanks for being patient with me.**

**Peace and love x**

**~AC**


	12. Chapter 12

The first weeks of January passed in a writing-induced haze. Tyler had given Elena the go-ahead to start writing as soon as he'd read the outline she had sent him, and she worked on the story every moment that she wasn't working or asleep.

(Well, that was what she told everyone, but it was a blatant lie. She worked on the novel at The Beanery anytime things were slow, and it had reached the point where she was even dreaming about it too.)

Things always went that way after she managed to break a bought of writer's block. Granted, her writer's block wasn't usually anywhere near as bad as it had been, but she always wound up working nonstop as soon as inspiration struck her again—she'd settle into a rhythm eventually, go out, talk to people, but it took a few weeks for that to happen. As a result, it wasn't until a week and a half before the beginning of February that anyone was able to drag her out of her trance. She was sitting on her couch on a Friday evening, her laptop balanced on her legs as she typed, so focused on what she was doing that she didn't notice the sound of her front door opening.

It took the sound of someone clearing their throat for her to look up from her work. She lifted her gaze from her screen to see Bonnie and Caroline standing in front of her, the former with her arms crossed and the latter with her hands on her hips.

"What are you guys doing here?" Elena asked.

"You haven't exchanged more than twelve words with any of us in three weeks, El," Bonnie said.

"We felt it was time that we came to pry you out of your bubble," Caroline said. Elena opened her mouth to argue and Caroline shook her head. "You've been working nonstop for weeks. You're going to put down your laptop and come to dinner with us, where you will be engaged and have a full conversation with Bonnie and me."

"Bossy," Elena said.

Caroline smiled. "It's a talent."

"I'm on a roll though," Elena said, looking back at her laptop. "I've got six chapters written."

"And your roll will continue after you come with us to get some food," Bonnie said. "Come on. You know you've missed actually getting to talk to people, and we'd like to know that you're functioning normally. Or would you like me to enlighten Caroline as to—"

Elena closed her laptop and set it on the coffee table. "No, you don't need to do that. I'm coming."

"Enlighten me as to what?" Caroline asked as Elena stood. "Are you keeping something from me?"

"It's not important," Elena said. "Right, Bonnie?"

"Right," Bonnie said.

"Then why can't I know about it?" Caroline asked.

"Because I don't want to talk about it," Elena said. "It's nothing personal, Care. Bonnie just happened to catch me at a time where she was able to find out some things."

"I'm so offended," Caroline said. "But come on. We're going to the Grill."

"This town really needs to get some new restaurants," Elena said, following her friends out into the front hallway, where they paused long enough for her to get a coat before they went outside. "I mean, I love the Grill, but in New York you could go to a new restaurant every night for a year and still have other places to try."

"Small-town Virginia versus New York City," Bonnie said, shrugging. "Unless someone moves here and decides to open something new, I doubt we're going to get anything else."

They piled into Caroline's car and arrived at the Grill within a few minutes. Elena let Bonnie and Caroline lead the way inside, stopping for a moment to inhale deeply. The January air was crisp as it filled her lungs, and though the cold was biting at her cheeks, she could have stood there forever. She never quite realized just how much she missed being outside during her fits of inspiration until someone came along and dragged her out. Fortunately, Bonnie and Caroline had no problem doing that for her, and they never let her go more than a few weeks before someone—or several someones—would come to make her act like a normal person again.

"Are you coming or not?" Bonnie asked from the door.

"Yeah, sorry," Elena said.

The Grill was busy when they went inside, but they were still able to get their usual booth in the corner of the restaurant. It had been their spot since high school, and while they weren't exactly predictable in their comings and goings, Bruce, who owned the restaurant, kept the table open for them unless he really needed it. Knowing everyone so well was both a blessing and a curse associated with living in a small town, but as far as Elena was concerned, having a table that was "hers" was definitely a blessing.

It didn't take long for them to order—they'd been to the Grill so many times that they had the menu memorized, and everyone had their favorite dishes. Elena tried to make a habit of not ordering the same thing every time she went, but she had tried everything on the menu at least once (really, she'd tried most things at least three times), and there were a few things that she preferred to any of the other options available.

"So are you going to tell us what this new book is about, or are we still not allowed to know?" Bonnie asked when their food arrived.

Elena took a bite from one of her French fries and shrugged. "You know how I feel about that stuff, Bon."

"Yeah, yeah," Bonnie said. "We don't get to know anything until you've been through at least two rounds of edits." She sipped from her drink and sighed. "It's like you think we're going to leak something to the press."

"First of all, I know you wouldn't do that to me," Elena said. "Second, it's just because I don't know what's going to be changed yet. I don't want to give you details that may not wind up as part of the final product."

"She doesn't trust us, obviously," Caroline said, grinning.

Elena rolled her eyes. "It's a redemption story, okay? That's all you're getting out of me, though."

"You see, that I can work with," Bonnie said. "I can make stuff up with that. I'm probably completely wrong, but it gives me something to do."

"Come on, Bon, let's see what we can come up with," Caroline said. "I'll start. It's totally set in New York or some big city."

"The hero is definitely a strong but quiet girl who has to help a dark and mysterious stranger find himself again," Bonnie said.

Elena laughed. "While you two are figuring out something that's completely inaccurate, I'm going to go to the bathroom."

She set her napkin on the table and stood up, leaving Bonnie and Caroline to trade ideas about what they thought Elena's book was going to be about. They were inventive enough that she was sure they would come up with some great theories, but their creativity was also their downfall. Much of what they dreamt up was hilarious and clever, but too outlandish to ever actually be a plot point in one of Elena's novels. She liked to describe her work as "idealized realism," in which those things that just didn't quite work out in real life somehow managed to fall into place.

She hummed to herself as she returned to their table a few minutes later. Bonnie and Caroline were still going when she sat down, and she shook her head as she reached for her napkin. A glass of red wine was set in front of her a moment later, and she looked up in confusion at Eddie, the bartender. Caroline and Bonnie fell silent then, both staring at him as well.

"A guy at the bar bought this for you," he said, shrugging. "I can tell him to shove it if you want me to."

"Who?" Elena asked.

Eddie gestured at the bar just as the crowd parted, giving Elena a clear view of a leather jacket and a head of messy, dark hair. Her fingers ghosted over the stem of the wine glass and after a moment she lifted it to her lips, taking a small sip.

"I take it you don't want me to tell him to shove off?" Eddie asked.

"No, it's fine," Elena said. "Thanks, Eddie."

He nodded and returned to the bar. She took another sip of the wine as Caroline and Bonnie looked at her, shocked expressions on both of their faces.

"Are you sure you want to do that, El?" Bonnie asked.

"I'm not going to refuse a good glass of wine just because Damon bought it for me," Elena said. She stood up, the wine glass still in her hand. "Fill Caroline in on the details, would you, Bon? I'll be back."

"Seriously?" Bonnie asked. "Is that really a good idea?"'

"Probably not, but I'm still going to do it anyway," Elena said. "You and I both know that I'm terrible at taking risks, so this should be good practice."

"Bonnie, what does she mean, fill me in?" Caroline asked.

As Elena made her way over to the bar, she heard a yelp, followed by Caroline calling her name. She ignored the blonde in favor of sliding onto the stool next to Damon's, setting the wine glass down on the counter as she did.

"Are you going to slap me?" Damon asked, not looking at her as he lifted a glass of what she could only assume was bourbon to his lips.

She braced her elbow on the counter and rested her chin on her hand. "Should I?"

"I'd rather you didn't," he said.

"Care to explain why you've been avoiding me since New Year's?" she asked.

"Will explaining stop you from slapping me?" he asked.

She shrugged and lifted the wine glass, taking a sip from it before she spoke. "That depends."

"That depends on what?" he asked.

"Whether or not I think your explanation is reasonable," she said. "Friends don't avoid each other for weeks, Damon. We've been over this."

"So we're still friends, then?" he asked.

"Of course, you idiot," she said.

"I guess I don't need to avoid you anymore," he said. He nodded in the direction of the glass in her hand. "The wine is an apology for the fact that I was convinced that I completely messed up our friendship."

"Why would you have messed up our friendship?" she asked.

He finally looked at her, his gaze meeting hers, and she did her best to ignore the shiver that ran down her spine as he spoke. "I kissed you, and I shouldn't have done that."

"It was New Year's," she said, shrugging. "No harm done."

"Right," he said. "New Year's. It didn't mean anything."

Something inside of her broke at those words, but she nodded anyway, turning her attention back to her wine so that she wouldn't have to look at him anymore. "Exactly."

They were quiet then, both staring at their respective glasses. She wasn't even going to try to explain what was probably going on in his head at that moment. All she knew was that it felt as though he'd dislodged something within her, and she didn't know why. It wasn't like they were anything, and she had no place thinking that he thought of her as anything more than a friend. Actually, given the position that he seemed to be in, just having him think of her as a friend was probably a bigger deal than anything else.

"Are you okay?" he asked eventually. She shrugged. "You just seem like something is bothering you, that's all."

Unwilling to tell him what she was really thinking, she searched for something to say, and offered him the first thing that came to mind. "It's nothing, it's just… There's this dinner in New York at the end of February with all the authors and publishing people and I promised Tyler that I'd go, but I'm going to have to spend the whole thing trying to stave off questions about what I'm working on, which is hard to do when I don't have the excuse of talking to someone else, and I don't—" She stopped then and shook her head. "It's stupid. I'll deal with it."

"If it's bothering you, then you should talk about it," he said. She glanced at him then, raising her eyebrows, and he offered her the half-smile that she hadn't seen in weeks. "I know, pot meet kettle."

"You said it, not me," she said. "And really, it's dumb. I've gotten through plenty of these things without a date before, and I'll get through this one. Unless—never mind."

"Unless what?" he asked.

She traced her finger around the lip of her glass. "Unless you wanted to come with me." He didn't respond, looking at her, and she bit her lip after a moment. "It wouldn't _mean _anything. It would just be nice to have some company, and you're not in the industry so I understand if you don't want to, but—"

"Slow down," he said. She stopped, glancing at him just in time to see the corner of his mouth quirk up. "It's not like I'm doing anything, is it? I'd love to come. When did you say it was?"

"The last weekend of February," she said. "Are you sure? You really don't have to. I won't be mad or anything if you say no."

"You need company, and it'll get me out of this town for a little while," he said. "Consider it part two of my apology, if you want."

She laughed softly. "Sure thing." She stood up then, picking up her wine glass. "And Damon?"

He looked at her. "Yes, Lena?"

She smiled sweetly, though her eyes narrowed. "If you ever do anything like this to me ever again, I will slap you."

"I'll keep that in mind," he said.

As she left, she brushed her free hand over his shoulder for a moment. When she made it back to Bonnie and Caroline, they both looked at her expectantly.

"So?" Bonnie asked.

"It didn't mean anything, and he's coming to New York with me," Elena said. She picked up a French fry and took a bite of it, only to make a face. "Cold. Damn it."

"He's going to New York with you?" Bonnie asked. "Seriously?"

"Apparently saving me from having to entertain editors and publishers all night is part two of his apology," Elena said. She nodded at the wine. "That was part one."

"I can't believe you didn't tell me that he kissed you, Elena," Caroline said. "That's so… So…"

"Reasonable?" Elena asked. "What would you have said to me if I told you?"

"I don't know," Caroline said. "Why does it matter?"

"Because I wasn't in the mood to hear you tell me that it was a terrible thing," Elena said. Caroline gaped at her and she met the blonde's gaze. "You know you would've. I know you don't like him, Care."

"That doesn't—I wouldn't—" Caroline began.

Bonnie cut her off. "We love you, Care, but you're not exactly afraid to share your opinions about people, and Elena was freaking out enough as it was." She looked at Elena then. "And you're okay with him saying that it meant nothing?"

"Sure," Elena said. "He's my friend. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, nothing else."

"Nothing else?" Caroline asked. "Really?"

"Do you want it to be something else?" Elena asked.

"Look," Caroline said, "I may not love Damon, or really even like him, but he cares about you, and you care about him. If you being happy means that he's part of your life, then I'll put up with him."

"How nice of you," Elena said.

"That came out wrong," Caroline said. "My point is, it doesn't matter what I think if it means something to you."

"Well, it didn't, so…" Elena trailed off.

"If you say so," Bonnie said.

"I do," Elena said, her tone leaving no room for argument. "I'm in the mood for some chocolate cake. Anyone else?"

Bonnie and Caroline chorused their agreement, and within a few minutes, the topic of Elena's not-relationship with Damon had been forgotten.

It had been forgotten by Bonnie and Caroline, anyway, though the former fixed Elena with a curious glance every now and then. Elena ignored it as best she could, trying to focus on their conversation rather than the swirl of emotions battling it out inside her. One part of her was relieved that Damon seemed unconcerned—the part of her that was his friend, the part that wanted him in her life no matter what—but the other part of her couldn't help but be disappointed.

She had thought they were getting somewhere with each other, and much as she was perfectly content with her life the way it was, she couldn't deny that Damon had fit himself into all the empty spaces in the short time that he'd been in Mystic Falls. He made her feel comfortable in a way that no one had in a long time, if ever, and she had begun to think that they were going _somewhere_. Where, she wasn't sure, but she had felt that their relationship had moved beyond the _friends_ stage.

Then again, what did she know? If what Jeremy said was true—and Damon's secrecy seemed to point to the fact that it was—Damon had plenty of baggage. She didn't know how anyone's past could be more convoluted than her own, but maybe that was just because she'd never met anyone whose was. If Damon's life had taken as many twists as she suspected it had, he was probably even less enthusiastic about getting into a relationship than she was.

Of course, the only way that she would ever know anything for sure would be if Damon told her about it himself, but she wasn't sure if that was ever going to happen.

She wasn't sure if she even wanted it to.

* * *

**A/N:**

**lol hey guys long time no post**

**So I'm going to be honest with you here and say that I lied in my last (now deleted) note—I have not, in fact, finished writing the entirety of this story. I've only written up through chapter fifteen. I am posting this (and subsequent written chapters over the next few weeks) because my inspiration has been completely shot on everything for the last ~six months and I'm hoping that posting/interacting with everyone will help kick-start it again.**

**Some brief updates: I now have an AO3 account for this side of things. My username over there is thespiritofcuriosity, though I also have the pseud UnicornStarFighter, which I am using whenever I cross-post something that was also over here. I've been posting _Heartbeat and Bone _over there with considerably more regularity than I have over here, and as of today, I am also posting this story over there as well.**

**I'll be honest, I much prefer AO3 to here, simply because it's a million times easier for me to post new chapters/update already posted chapters/interact with my readers (comments are so much easier to reply to than reviews are), so once this (and H&amp;B) are finished over here, I will likely be migrating to AO3 permanently with anything new that I write. Like I said above, my username is thespiritofcuriosity. I'm also still on Tumblr at unicornstarfighter, though I don't update that blog all too often (I will more as I have readers wanting things of me, but as of now it just sort of sits).**

**Thanks for reading and thanks for your patience and I will post again next week (or the week after... Haven't quite decided if I want to do weekly or bi-weekly updates yet, especially since I'm currently working full time and my downtime to do more writing is limited).**

**Peace and love x**


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